REAR ADMIRAL RICHARD E. BYRD - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 09/23/1927 - HFSID 87530

RICHARD E. BYRD. TLS: "Dick", 1p, 8½x11. Cohasset, Mass., 1927 September 23. On letterhead of Byrd Antarctic Expedition, 9 Brimmer Street, Boston, Mass. to Mr. James B. Pond, New York City. Begins: "My dear Bim (sic)" In full: "I am sending you the application filled out for membership in the Circumnavigators Club, and I accept with pleasure your invitation to the December dinner, though I am declining all other invitations. When I went around the world I went both ways. I do not object to going to the home of your friend to lecture. In fact, I think that is the nicest way to give a lecture. I will be willing to make my tour in November but remember I do not want to do to much traveling out West and around. Listen, old top, why in the dickens do you use that terrible picture of me taken in civilian clothes the Lord knows when, in your announcement of attractions? The picture is frightful. Besides it seems to me I ought to be in uniform. Anyhow I guess it is done now. By the way, about the contract, please forgive me for not sending it sooner. The truth is I forgot it and now I cannot locate it. I will have to look it up. I am sorry about this. I do not understand how it happened." Handwritten postscript: "I will go to [illegible] dinner the 29th unless it interferes with my lecture tour". The year before this letter, polar explorer RICHARD E. BYRD (1888-1957) had become the first man to fly over the North Pole (May 9, 1926). In the year he signed this letter, Byrd had led the team that made the third transatlantic flight after Charles Lindbergh's historic flight. Thirteen months later, he would embark on the first (1928-1930) of his four expeditions to Antarctica (during that expedition, he would become the first man to fly over both the North and South Poles). Byrd raised private funds for his expeditions to both polar regions from contributions by wealthy individuals, corporate sponsorships and proceeds from his lectures, in which he detailed his previous exploits and outlined future endeavors. After 1930, he also used proceeds from the sale of his book, Little America, as well as income from his lectures to finance additional expeditions, which continued th rough 1956. JAMES B. POND, who had become the nation's premier lecture agent, had established his agency in New York in 1879. In addition to Byrd, his notable clients included Mark Twain, P.T. Barnum, Thomas Nast, James Whitcomb Riley, Henry Stanley and Booker T. Washington. Lightly creased, not at signature. Receipt stamp beneath typed place and date. 2 file holes at upper left blank margin, which is chipped at upper blank corner. Fine condition.