ROOSEVELT, Franklin D. - FAY, Charles Ryle.

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Mary Celeste: The Odyssey of an Abandoned Ship. First abridged edition, signed on the front free endpaper by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had encouraged the publication, and also signed by Fay on the title page and by William D. Winter at the end of his foreword.Tipped-in is a letter on White House letterhead from Roosevelt's secretary Grace Tully - "The President has had much pleasure in signing for you the copy" - sending the copy to John G. Cookson (1896-1948), a businessman at the pen manufacturer L. E. Waterman of Montreal.Roosevelt had a lifelong scholarly interest in naval history, collecting naval art, prints, and ship models, writing on maritime subjects, and building a substantial library on sea power. He took a special interest in the mystery of the Mary Celeste, the American-registered brigantine found adrift and unmanned in the Atlantic on 4 December 1872. Bound from New York to Genoa, she was found slightly damaged, with her lifeboat missing, but otherwise seaworthy and well provisioned. Her ten occupants were never found, and no conclusive explanation emerged.Fay's book sought to strip away the sensational mythology and present the facts and competing explanations with scholarly care. It prints a facsimile of Roosevelt's letter encouraging the project: "I think it would be a public service to ascertain and publish the facts in the alluringly famous 'Mary Celeste' case, and you may be assured of my best wishes and cooperation in such grand work".The Peab

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