TAFT, WILLIAM H.

Typed letter signed from William H. Taft to Albert Bigelow Paine, in which the former president rejects having his name used to sponsor a product, and mentions his having enjoyed Paine's biography of Mark Twain. New Haven, CT: December 8, 1919. A one-page typed letter on William H. Taft Washington D.C. stationary, signed in ink "Wm. H. Taft," addressed to Paine at the Players Club on Gramercy Park, with one manuscript correction in ink. 10 x 7 3/4 inches visible area. Light uneven toning, the usual old folds, the signature is quite dark, not examined out of frame.

An unexpected association between the former President William Howard Taft, who was then teaching at Yale Law School before being appointed to The Supreme Court, and the author Albert Bigelow Paine, who is best known for his authorized biography of Mark Twain. In the letter, Taft refuses Paine's request that he sponsor an unnamed product because "I dislike to have my name put down as sponsor for something that I have no personal relation to and no personal information about... I am called upon so much for so many things that I have tried to make it a rule that unless I have some personal relation to the matter, with the opportunity of personal observation, I withhold assuming public responsibility."

Taft ends the letter praising by Paine's biography of Mark Twain saying, "I enjoyed every line of it." However, he makes one correction to his letter - instead of thanking Paine for "sending" him a copy of the biography, he thanks him for "writing" it.