Comprises: 2 page Autograph Letter Signed, on 2 sheets, with envelope. 11x8½. Tokyo, June 29, 1968 * 1 page Typed Letter Signed, with carbon copy of second letter, with envelope. 10x7. Les Monts-de-Corsier, Aug. 2, 1968 * 6 page Autograph Letter Signed, on 6 sheets. 11x8½. [In flight on board] PA-1, Honolulu-Frankfurt, April 20, 1972 * 1 page Autograph Letter Signed. 11x7¾. On Lindbergh's Tellina, Darien, Connecticut letterhead. Together 4 letters.
A small archive of personal correspondence from Lindbergh to his close friend, and Pan American airlines executive, Samuel F. Pryor, Jr. The first letter concerns conservation efforts to protect the ocean's whale population: "I think we are making progress. The Antarctic blue-whale-unit quota has been set again at 32,000 wheras the estimated sustainable yield is 3400 bw.w. in the Antarctic. So at last we have the kill rate below the reproduction rate. The ban on further harpooning of the critical species (blue, right, hump-back) is being continued all over the world." The second letter regards Lindbergh's declining of an invitation to attend the North Commission meetings in Fairbanks, Alaska. A carbon of his letter declining the invitation to the Alaskan Governor, Walter J. Hickel, is included. The third, and lengthiest, letter goes into great detail describing the reasons for Lindbergh's declining the opportunity to attend the meetings at the Bohemian Grove in California: "I don't think I have ever gone to meetings of that kind without getting involved in complications much more time consuming than the meetings themselves...there are always people who want things. They want you to attend other meetings, to make speeches, to autograph and return books they send you, to sign slips of paper for their children, to read a book they think is wonderful, to visit their factory or summer camp, to write a letter to a child or an old friend who is ill. There just isn't any end to it, and one thing leads to another like a chain reaction." He goes on to speak of his desire to spend more time at his Maui estate (A gift to Lindbergh from Pryor whose own estate was adjoining, both Lindbergh and Pryor are buried at the Palapala Ho'omau church on Maui.) and describes a situation with a property fence being crossed by a neighbor's cattle: "...the barb-wire fence on the western boundary of Anne's and my property has fallen down in many places. John's cattle now cross the fence line and pasture in the woods next door...Often, John's cattle stand in the woods at this point and look across the fence at the lush green grass in our house plot." The final letter is a short and friendly note expressing a desire to return to Maui and visit with the Pryors again: "It is lovely here at Scotts Grove...but I like to hear the great Pacific waves at night, and the showers of rain on the roof, and to jump in the Land Rover in the morning and drive up the hill to your house for a visit." A wonderful record of this close friendship between two important figures in aviation history.
Condition:
The first and third letters appear to have at one time been kept in a three ring binder and have holes for such roughly made along the edges; the second letter and the accomanying carbon have been trimmed along two edges; the fourth letter appears to have been trimmed, thus removing the binder holes and a 1/2" strip of paper along the right edge (no loss of text). All have the usual folds from mailing. Very good