HENRY PROUSE COOPER - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 03/21/1881 - HFSID 3858

HENRY PROUSE COOPER
The prominent tailor, soon to become a public nuisance, signs an autograph letter to Garfield's Private Secretary about a morning coat he is making for the new President (March 1881).
Autograph Letter signed: "Henry Prouse Cooper", 1 page, 5x8. New York, N.Y., 1881 March 21. On personal letterhead to G. Stanley Brown, Esq., Private Secretary. In full: "The Blue Morning Coat made for the President has been duly received, also your letter of instructions respecting the same. As the Cutter saw this Coat on General Garfield at Mentor, I think we can make the required alteration, & will return the Coat tomorrow. If not then satisfactory, I will come to Washington & see the President personally in regard to it. Yours very respectfully". Henry Prouse Cooper was a prominent tailor, especially recommended to incoming Yale students in an 1877 guide for his "high reputation in London and New York." As shown in this letter, Cooper's customers included the President of the United States. Regrettably, Garfield would have few opportunities to wear this Morning Coat, since he was fatally wounded by disappointed office seeker Charles Guiteau on July 2, 1881, and confined to bed until his death on September 15. Cooper was soon to suffer a different sort of downfall, afflicted with mental illness and alcoholism. By 1883 he had lost his business, and his former partners had to obtain a restraining order to prevent him from harassing employees on the premises. His brother and partner Stephen Cooper had sought in 1882 to have Cooper committed to an institution, and Henry Cooper acknowledged his problems to the court: "Take me away at once. Don't you see I am a slave to women and rum!" The court ruled him sane, however, and soon he was involved in more litigation about ownership of his former place of business and violation of the restraining order. His behavior made the newspapers frequently in 1883 and 1884, after which he disappears from the public record. Top edge ragged from binding. Normal mailing folds. Otherwise, fine condition.