Have Faith in Massachusetts: A Collection of Speeches and Messages.

COOLIDGE, Calvin.

Item Number: 4204

Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1919.

First edition of the second enlarged edition. Octavo, original cloth. Inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “To Lyman Spitzer With Regards Calvin Coolidge.” Near fine in a very good dust jacket. The recipient, Lyman Spitzer was an American theoretical physicist and astronomer. As a scientist, he carried out research into star formation, plasma physics, and in 1946, conceived the idea of telescopes operating in outer space. Spitzer invented the stellarator plasma device and is the namesake of NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. Attached to the inner gutter is a letter on White House stationary to the recipient stating that President Coolidge would be “glad” to autograph this book.

Before serving as Vice President, and then succeeded to the Presidency, Calvin Coolidge was the 46th Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts (1916-19), and then the 48th Governor (1919-21). In those years, he spoke and wrote frequently. A favorite topic, were "the fundamental principles of sound community life which cannot be stated too emphatically or too often. Few public men of to-day have shown a finer combination of right feeling and clear thinking about these principles, with a gift for the pithy expression of them, than has Governor Calvin Coolidge."