ENOLA GAY CREW (THEODORE VAN KIRK) - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED - HFSID 2691

ATOMIC BOMB: THEODORE VAN KIRK
The Enola Gay navigator sends this letter commenting on books written about the Enola Gay.
Autograph Letter Signed: "T.J. Van Kirk", 1p, 7¼x10½. San Francisco, no date. To Mr. Hemminger, a teacher. In full: "Re your question on the book. These are primarily a result of self aggrandizement by the author - something many of the people on the crew were guilty of. Also I think anyone who writes a book on his career cannot be expected to be a 'shrinking violet' and should be granted a little poetic license. Some distractions are a result of memory. For example, on pp 163, Tibbets implys (sic) that Caron & Duzenbury were on his crew in Europe. That is not the case. All incidents and comments re Bob Lewis are accurate so he should have no reservations on the distortions. I believe Gordon Thomas' 'Enola Gay' and General Groves book-I believe 'Now it Can be Told' would be better to use in class." Van Kirk (1921-2014) was the navigator on the Enola Gay. The book Enola Gay by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan was published by Stein and Day in 1977. Now It Can Be Told: The Story of the Manhattan Project by Leslie R. Groves (Director of the Manhattan Project) was first published in 1962 and was republished by DaCapo Press in 1983 with a new introduction by physicist Edward Teller. The Tibbets Story, the book Van Kirk is writing about, was written by Enola Gay pilot PAUL W. TIBBETS with Clair Stebbins and Harry Franken and was published by Stein and Day in 1978. Fine condition.