[Dining Societies – Guerriere Dinners; [John P. Marks, Secretary; Robert Fiske Bradford]

[Original scrapbook and manuscript notes for the Guerriere Dinners. With:] A Brief History [of the Club], by Robert Fiske Bradford.

Boston: [1933-1948]].

Quarto (29 x 22 cm.), [~150] pages. Additional handwritten or typed leaves pasted in. In full royal blue calf, titled in gilt; dentelles. Some rubbing to edges. Some additional materials detached but present. Generally very good. ~ A somewhat ad hoc record book of the meetings of the Boston dining society, The Guerriere Dinners. The Dinners are named after the British frigate Guerriere, which lost a grand naval battle against the U.S.S. Constitution in 1812. The book contains the handwritten descriptions of more than seventy meetings recorded, which were done at the time of each dinner, as the descriptions include the individual signatures of the members and guests present. Each meeting also featured a speaker, and the speakers and topics are also recorded. What was not recorded were the menus of each dinner. While the book functioned as a sort of scrapbook with supporting photos, clippings and other texts pasted-in where appropriate, there was a late effort to formalize the work with a prefatory statement added to a preliminary blank: "This volume is property of the Guerriere Dinners, a dining society of gentlemen in Boston in the state of Massachusetts..." a note by "John P. Marks, Sec'y, Aug. 25, 1946." And by way of an introduction, a history of the club was typed separately and pasted-in at the front, A Brief History, by Robert Fiske Bradford, dated March 1933. Bradford was a one term Governor of Massachusetts, a descendant of a Mayflower passenger, and a true Boston Brahmin. At the time of the founding of the Society, Bradford was practicing law at Ropes and Gray and in 1935 would soon form his own firm with the newly-retired Governor Joseph Ely. Besides Bradford, members included Vernon P. Williams, Vivian Pomeroy, John P. Monks, and Francis Peabody Magoun Jr. Guests included Thomas North Whitehead, Calvert Magruder, G.W. Cottrell Jr., Henry F. Colt, T. Hsieh, Philp Hofer, George F. Plimpton, Lucien Price, Alexander Forbes, J. Malcolm Forbes, and many others. ~ The presentations covered a wide range of topics from science and medicine to global politics, archaeology, exploration, and the arts. Presenters included Robert M. Washburn (journalist and friend of Teddy Roosevelt, the poet Robert Hillyer, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, and poet Robert Frost. Frost spoke on April 21st, 1936, and offered "Waspish" as his subject. Whether he delivered more than the text of that poem to the room, we don't know, but he included the poem in the guest book, a fair copy manuscript, initialed "R.F." at the end, but signed in full as the speaker. The club voted to disband May 21, 1948, and a description of the meeting and the reason for disbanding is recorded by the Secretary, J.P. Monks. The book records that the Club met just one more time, in July of 1955, at a luncheon in honor of Sir Charles Belgrave, K.B.E. who was elected to honorary membership. On glossy wires artistically bent... But he's as good as anybody going. First and last lines of Frost's 'Waspish'.

Price: $3,500.00