Lengthy ALS as Superintendent of the United States Military Academy, signed “Douglas,” 11 pages, 5.25 x 8.5, personal United States Military Academy (West Point) letterhead, postmarked November 15, 1921. Fascinating letter to his fiancée, Louise Cromwell Brooks, handwritten two months before the official announcement of their engagement, in which MacArthur advises Brooks on how to cope with unwanted advances and threats of blackmail by General John ‘Black Jack’ Pershing. In part: “As I write my hand with its rings fascinates me…I have watched it as it fought for me on many a bloody field…I have felt it drive the steel home, – and I have grinned at its cool readiness and skill as a killer…But today its sight thrills me…it seems to point no longer pistol or dirk but towards the immortal road to Paradise, its flash sweeps like a flush through my veins, and I laugh with the Gods in rapturous glee at the wonder forging of those brilliant circlets that bind us together.” MacArthur on the Pershing dilemma: “I am sorry the C.I.C. is worrying you. Sorry he is such a bully – such a blackguard as to try and blackmail you. His actions make me feel ashamed of the Army…Above all things I hate cowardice in a man, and this is such a painful evidence of just that. He shows in a flash all the shortcomings of the old West Point training. In his own person he now becomes the best illustration of the necessity for the www type I stand for. He is trying to break your spirit. Don't let him…Ignore him, do not let him come to your house, do not let him telephone you, do not dance with him, do not let him speak to you except when unavoidable. Such treatment will kill him. See the Secretary of War [John W. Weeks] yourself and tell him the entire story. Omit no detail. He will be shocked beyond words…The C.I.C. misrepresents to you when he criticizes my regime. It is universally regarded as successful. He has said so himself on numerous occasions. He is taking the other line only after knowing of our engagement…Maintain an inflexible poise, an invincible composure, and trust our destiny. The situation worries me not in the slightest except as it may affect you. With you beside me I am above the shafts of Fate and feel that I am at the top of the world. Love me, laugh at his vulgar villainy, and all will be well.” In fine condition. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope hand-addressed by MacArthur, who notes the mail as being “Special Delivery.”
An American socialite ‘considered one of Washington's most beautiful and attractive young women,’ Louise Cromwell (1890-1965) met MacArthur in late 1921, having been recently divorced and already the mother of two young children. Pershing was a rival of MacArthur's for the affections of Cromwell, his biographer mentions: ‘an unfortunate public episode - not a private one - connecting Pershing to Louise Cromwell Brooks, MacArthur's first wife. Pershing knew and liked her immensely, and she him…One rumor had it that Pershing sent MacArthur to the Philippines in a kind of banishment as soon as he married Louise." (F. E. Vandiver, Black Jack: The Life and Times of John J. Pershing, p. 1091) MacArthur and Brooks announced their engagement in January 1922 and were married that Valentine's Day. The marriage, however, ended in divorce seven years later.
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