Scarce ALS, one page, lightly-lined both sides, 5 x 8.25, black-bordered mourning stationery letterhead, November 20. Letter to his sister. In full: “When your kind note written last Sunday evening was rec’d I was suffering too keenly to read any part of the heavy mail which was accumulating day by day. This is my first attempt to write, one which I shall prosecute no further than to thank you for your kind offer to come to me and to say that I am decidedly better. And expect to soon to be firmly on my feet again. I came down from my chamber Friday for the first time—passed the whole of yesterday in this little parlor which you will remember and am still better this morning. But these days are so full of memories of her suffering—of my own isolation and keen heart-aches that I have sometimes been inclined to look upon acute physical suffering as a messenger of relief. I am glad the last operation upon dear Jeanie’s eye was less painful than the preceding one and hope that it may prove permanently effectual.” In fine condition.
Former president Franklin Pierce was no stranger to deep grief and family tragedy; he and his wife Jane lost their first two sons before the age of four, and witnessed their third son’s death in a gruesome train accident at age eleven during Pierce’s presidential campaign. Jane never recovered from the traumatic event, spending most of her days as first lady writing letters to her deceased son, earning the nickname ‘Shadow in the White House.’ She blamed her husband for the death, and Pierce carried the guilt with him for the remainder of his life. After losing the Democratic nomination for reelection in 1856, he suffered from great depression and severe alcoholism. When Jane died at her sister’s home in Andover, Massachusetts in December of 1863, Pierce further isolated himself; he had little contact with anyone and wrote very few letters during this time, making this letter exceedingly rare—it is the first we have ever offered from this tragic period of Pierce’s life. Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RR Auction COA.
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