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World War II-dated TLS signed “As ever—your Ike,” one page, 8 x 10.5, Allied Force Headquarters, Office of the Commander-in-Chief letterhead, September 8, 1943. Letter to his wife Mamie Eisenhower, written during his command of Allied operations in the Mediterranean. In part: “Don’t be shocked to get a typewritten note, but at the moment I am just too worn down to go over to the office and start writing. I wanted you to have the enclosed copy of a letter I am writing to Mr. Norton. Please don’t think I am sick or in any danger of being so, but this is September 8 and long before you get this note you will have read in the papers enough that will show you why I happen to be rather stretched out at the moment.”
Eisenhower continues with affectionate domestic news, expressing delight that their son John had spent a weekend with Mamie, and explaining why she could not visit him in-theater: “I cannot allow, as a matter of policy, wives of soldiers to come into this theater…it would be taking advantage of my own position.” He adds that he had briefly hoped to be sent to England for “four or five days” and thought it “would be a wonderful thing to have you there,” before closing with mention of her recent letter and missing packages: “The magazines (Westerns) and the cigars of which you spoke, have not arrived.” In a typed postscript, he thanks her for pictures, adding with humor: “When I come home everybody will assume that I am the father of you both.” In fine condition. Accompanied by the referenced carbon copy of his letter to D. F. Norton.
A remarkable wartime letter to Mamie, written on the historic date of Italy’s public armistice with the Allies—September 8, 1943—when Eisenhower, as Supreme Allied Commander in the Mediterranean, was overseeing the immensely consequential transition from the Sicilian campaign to the invasion and surrender of Italy. The letter poignantly blends exhaustion, duty, secrecy, and marital warmth, with Eisenhower reassuring Mamie while acknowledging that newspaper reports would soon explain why he was “rather stretched out at the moment.”
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