PBA Galleries

Comprises:

• Five typed letters signed by Ernest A. Simpson, a partner in the shipbroker  firm of Simpson, Spence & Young, to Truman R. Young, an associate with a San Francisco law firm that represented the shipbrokers in negotiations. The letters, on company letterhead, pertain to business matters, and were sent to Young in Paris, London, San Francisco, Oslo and Rotterdam.
• One typed letter signed by Ernest A. Simpson, to Chalmers G. Graham, Truman Young's employer, regarding business and mutual associates.
• Three short typed letters signed by R. Ridley on letterhead of Simpson, Spence & Young, to Truman R. Young.
• One short typed letter signed by H. Languish, on letterhead of Simpson, Spence & Young, to Truman R. Young.
• One autograph letter signed by Truman R. Young, to Chalmers G. Graham, 5 pages, likely a retained hand-written copy, on half-sheets of Regent Palace Hotel, London, letterhead. Dated April 27, 1935.

Interesting little archive revealing bits and pieces of one of the great scandals of the English royal family, in which the heir to the British throne conducted an affair with a twice-married (and still-married) American commoner, with letters from the cuckolded husband, and a letter from the observer Truman Young to his employer commenting on the affair. It is this latter letter, written on April 27, 1935, that is perhaps of the most interest: "...Mr. Simpson...told me that he and his wife and another married couple had been guests of the Prince of Wales in Cornwall over Easter. This is really an interesting situation... Friends of mine who are... newspapermen... let me know that all England, and in fact the world, is very much interested in Mrs. Simpson, whom, as yet, they have been unable to identify, but call Mrs. Wally Simpson and believe hails originally from Chicago. For all I know there may be two Mrs. Simpsons, but I doubt it..."