Typed Letter Signed / Unsigned Program

This California investment broker was a noted Lincoln scholar and collector and author/editor of several Lincoln volumes, including "Mary Lincoln: Her Life and Letters" (1972). TLS, 2pp, 8½" X 11", Los Angeles, CA, 7 September 1953. Addressed to Arnold Gates (1914-93, notes Lincoln and Civil War scholar). Very good. On imprinted personal letterhead (with color globe and "A Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Americana"), Turner writes this meaty missive to a founder and officer of the New York Civil War Round Table. Gates had asked Turner to give a lecture at one of their monthly meetings, and here the collector chats about his schedule and discusses his topic. In part: "My paper is concerned with the ransom of $200,000 which Jubal Early levied upon Frederick on July 9, 1864. I have developed the theme that his delay in connection with collecting the ransom plus General Wallace's keen perception of Early's intended attempt to capture Washington, etc., were responsible for his failure to enter Washington which was practically defenseless." Boldly signed in full at the close. Accompanied by a near fine copy of "Playbill Magazine" for January 1973 (Vol. 10, Issue 1): Glossy pictorial wrappers, 8vo, 48pp. Numerous illustrations. Program for "Look Away," starring Geraldine Page and Maya Angelou, Jerome Kinty's play "Based om 'Mary Todd Lincoln: Her Life and Letters' by Justin G. Turner and Linda Levitt Turner." Page of course played Mrs. Lincoln and Angelou her African-American confidante and dressmaker Elizabeth Keckley.…