FELIX FRANKFURTER The Supreme Court Justice signs an extraordinary rare, handwritten letter to Herbert Hoover, who was administering food aid to Europe after World War I: "I am more sorry than you can possibly realize to have provoked you about Poland. … I know what you did and how you feel about the Polish Jewish situation …" Autograph Letter Signed: "Felix Frankfurter," 1p, 8¼x10½. No place or date but London, post World War I. On stationery of the American Relief Administration. To Herbert Hoover, who served as Chairman of the American Relief Committee in London. In full: "I am more sorry than you can possibly realize to have provoked you about Poland, for I feel a deeper devotion and gratitude for your services and your wise humanity than you probably appreciate. It's just because I know what you did and how you feel about the Polish Jewish situation that I spoke as briefly as I did. You may be sure that I shall not in the slightest seek to do anything but that which may help towards healing. read more...

WILLIAM BARCLAY "BAT" MASTERSON He pens a letter in correspondence to an individual stating they are relatives in which Masterson quickly replies with otherwise! Autograph Letter Signed: "W.B. Masterson". 2 pages, 8x10, loosely placed in 9½x11½ folio. Accompanied by original mailing envelope; heavily toned, soiled and worn. December 31, 1905, New York City, written to "Mr. Watson F. Masterson" of Ramsey, West Virginia. In full: "Dear Sir. Without going into details can assure you that we are not related; even remotely. My father was born in this state eighty years ago and moved to Illinois where I was born fifty one years ago. There are a great many families of Mastersons in Missouri and Iowa none of whom are related to mine. My father had but one brother and he was several years the eldest and has been dead about forty years and died without issue. Very respectfully." Masterson (1853-1921) was an American frontier gambler and buffalo hunter and a scout for the United States Army. read more...

WARREN BURGER COURT (1981-1986) 18x14 color photo of the US Supreme Court Justices, signed by all 9. This was the Court's membership from the arrival of Justice O'Connor until the retirement of Chief Justice Burger Photograph Mount signed: "John Paul Stevens", "Thurgood Marshall", "William H. Rehnquist", "Byron R. White", "Harry A. Blackmun", "William J. Brennan, Jr", "Warren E. Burger", "Sandra D. O'Connor", and "Lewis F. Powell, Jr". Color, 13½x10 image, affixed to 18x14 cardstock. The Justices have signed in the lower margin, in the same order as their photo line. WARREN E. BURGER (1907-1995), a Republican appointed by President Richard Nixon to replace Chief Justice Earl Warren, served as Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1969 until his retirement in 1986. His court upheld Miranda v. Arizona (source of the "Miranda warning"), decided 1973's abortion rights case Roe v. Wade read more...

CHARLES J. GUITEAU Awaiting trial for the assassination of the President in 1881, Guiteau signed this autograph letter demanding that an account of his life given to a prosecutor who had posed as a reporter and that the account be published in full in the NY Herald Autograph Letter signed: "CG", 2 pages (front and verso), 5x8. [Washington, D.C.], "Oct. 17" [1881]. To "Mr. Smith". In full: "I expected you today. I want to work on my book. Send a man tomorrow sure. I saw Saturday's republican. It contains a fine report generally. I don't think much of democratic papers. Send me Stalwart, N.Y. & Washington. If Caskill was not mean, he would allow my attorneys to copy from Bailey's dictation my autobiography & thus save me the trouble of dictating it. If he has a particle of honor he ought to do this considering how his Bailey got it. There is nothing I wish to withdraw. Bailey obtained the information on his, & Corkhill's statement that he was a reporter of the NY Herald, & promised to publish it in full in the Herald, & he said it would make 40 columns, that Mr. read more...

CLARENCE DARROW Lawyer Clarence Darrow wrote about his socialist views - "I am of course a radical as I have always been" - and about his autobiography in this 1933 letter, written on his personalized letterhead. Autograph letter signed "Clarence Darrow.". Black ink notations in bottom left corner in unknown hand. 1 page, 7¼x10½, on Darrow's personal letterhead. Jan. 15, 1933. In full: "My dear Gerson - I am returning the $1.- Of course I am always only sorry that I can't send my best friends books, without their spending money to buy them But really the book is expensive and I have a good many friends (luckily) and I just can't do it. Of course I am glad you liked the book. I am sure that most of it concerns your own ideas. I am of course a radical as I have always been and hoping that our industrial system will be changed. No permanent good can come from the old. If there is any recovery it will last but a short time. I am working some on Technocracy and am glad to see how it is being taken up. If we were not Barbarians no one in the world would be poor. We open talk of you and wish we could see you and [illegible]. You will ever be close to us. read more...

JOSEPHINE "JOSIE" EARP Handwritten letter to friend and would-be biographer John Flood, only months after Wyatt Earp's death. "I am still worrying for my dear husband. I miss him so much." Autograph Letter signed: "Josephine Earp", 3 pages, 6x8 folded, otherwise 12x8. Oakland (California), 1929 September 25. To "Dear Mr. Flood", in full: "I did not mean to be slow to respond to your nice letter. I wanted to wait and see if I could be in Los Angeles in the next ten days but it seems now like I will not be able to get away until about the fifth, or six I did not mean to be slow to respond to your nice letter. I wanted to wait and see if I could be in Los Angeles in the next ten days but it seems now like I will not be able to get away until about the fifth, or six of Oct. and I know you cannot wait until then. I thank you very much for offering to wait a few days until I could get there. I will see you when I come to Vidal. I have many things that I must attend to before I go to the desert. I hope you are right to the gross or net but different attorneys have told me that you are wrong - we will have to wait and see. That is all that can be done. read more...

JOSEPHINE "JOSIE" EARP Very content-rich ALS to the man writing the manuscript of Wyatt Earp's autobiography, and mentioning help they are getting from Western actor William S. Hart. While urging author Flood to keep the story clean and to finish it soon, she reminds him of several more events in Wyatt's life he must include. Autograph Letter signed: "Your friends/Earps", 3 pages (12x8 integral leaf and 8x6 unattached page). Vidal, California, 1925 November 9. To John H. Flood, Jr., Los Angeles. In full: "Your letter came Monday. And I was glad to hear from you also good news. Although I am sure disappointed. And yet I still feel grateful to have them find the oil. I was in hope they would bring in a two or three hundred barrel well. But - as I said I must be satisfied as it could have been a bust too. I have been watching the oil news very closely but saw no account of it. I hope it will not be a mistake. Now when we get the story also picture we will then be ready to settle down. We had a very fine letter from Bill [friend and actor William S. Hart] and he is very anxious to read more...

SIR WILLIAM BLACKSTONE Signing in the text of this handwritten 1777 letter, he discusses his corrections to proofs of a legal address he delivered before the Society of Antiquaries Third-Person Autograph Letter Signed: "Sir William Blackstone" and "Sir Wm" in text, 1 page, 7½x4½. Wallingford, 1777 April 17, Monday morning. In full: "Sir William Blackstone returns to Mess. Bowzer and Nichols the Proof Sheets of his letter to Mr. Barrington & with them the MS. Copy. [Items not included.] Had he known the Society intended to have printed it immediately, he would have corrected it for the Press before it was sent to the Compositor, but believes the few Emendations he has made will not occasion any considerable Trouble. Sir Wm would have returned it sooner, but did not receive it till Saturday Afternoon."  English jurist and writer SIR WILLIAM BLACKSTONE (1723-1780) is referring to the publishing of his letter to Judge Daines Barrington, which he had read in 1775 before the Society of Antiquaries. read more...

REHNQUIST COURT, 1986-1990 14x9½ color, satin-finish Court photo, signed by all nine Justices on the 18x14 mount. Photograph Mount signed: "Thurgood Marshall", "Wm J. Brennan Jr", "William H. Rehnquist", "Byron R. White", "Harry C. Blackmun", "Antonin Scalia", "John Paul Stevens", "Sandra Day O' Connor", "Anthony Kennedy". Color, 14x9½. WILLIAM H. REHNQUIST (1924-2005) was appointed Associate Justice by President Nixon on January 7, 1972. He joined with his colleagues in their unanimous ruling on July 24, 1974, upholding the Special Prosecutor's subpoena for President Nixon's tapes for Watergate trial; Nixon resigned 16 days later. President Reagan appointed Rehnquist Chief Justice on September 26, 1986. As Chief Justice, he presided at President Clinton's impeachment trial in 1999. On December 12, 2000, his court ruled 5-4 that the manual recount of presidential votes in Florida was unconstitutional, resulting in Vice President Gore's concession and Texas Governor George W. Bush's victory. read more...