A CONTRITE PRESIDENT TRUMAN HANDWRITES A LETTER TO THE NEW YORK TIMES GENERAL MANAGER ABOUT HIS EARLIER CRITICAL LETTER: “I COMPLAINED, IN VERY UNCOMPLIMENTARY LANGUAGE ABOUT A CERTAIN EDITORIAL IN THE TIMES”; HE THEN THANKED THEM FOR THEIR COVERAGE OF MARGARET’S SINGING CAREER: “YOU HIT ME WHERE I LIKE IN THE PIECE ABOUT MY DAUGHTER”

HARRY S. TRUMAN (1884-1972).  Truman was the Thirty-Third President. 

ALS. 2pg. 5” x 8”. June 19, 1949. The White House.  An autograph letter signed “Harry S. Truman” as President on “The White House” letterhead.  Composed on two separate sheets of paper, Truman wrote to Julius Ochs Adler, the general manager of The New York Times: “Dear Mr. Adler: Some days ago I complained, in very uncomplimentary language about a certain editorial in the Times.  And I wrote you a rather curt reply to my complaint.  Today I am expressing thanks and appreciation for the special article in the Times Sunday Magazine about Margaret.  I am sure my ‘Kentucky feelings’ were on top when I wrote the complaint.  Hope you’ll forget both the complaint and the reply to your letter.  You hit me where I like in the piece about my daughter.  Sincerely, Harry S Truman”.  On Sunday, June 19^th, 1949, The New York Times magazine ran an article entitled “Portrait of a Young Career Woman” about Margaret Truman’s singing career.  The tag line was “Like many another girl, Margaret Truman has come to New York to make a life for herself” and mentioned that she left Washington behind.  The article talked about her ongoing concert schedule.  This 1949 Truman letter was penned eighteen months before Truman’s most famous (or infamous) letter; the 1950 missive to The Washington Post music critic Paul Hume.  In that letter, President Truman, writing as a father, reacted to Hume’s negative assessment of Margaret’s singing, and wrote “Mr. Hume: - I've just read your lousy review of Margaret’s concert.  I’ve come to the conclusion that you are an ‘eight ulcer man on four ulcer pay.’  It seems to me that you are a frustrated old man who wishes he could have been successful. When you write such poppy-cock as was in the back section of the paper you work for it shows conclusively that you're off the beam and at least four of your ulcers are at work.  Some day I hope to meet you. When that happens you’ll need a new nose, a lot of beef steak for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter below! [Westbrook] Pegler, a gutter snipe is a gentleman along side you. I hope you'll accept that statement as a worse insult than a reflection on your ancestry.” (that letter sold for $193,000 in 2002).  The 1949 letter has two folds, dark ink, and a huge Truman autograph.  A terrific letter in which the President acts contrite yet also thanks the Times for assisting his daughter.