Ronald Reagan: His Life In Pictures.

SPADA, James (Reagan.

Item Number: 31092

New York: St. Martin's Press, 2001.

First edition. Quarto, original boards. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s copy with her annotations, notes and underlines throughout, including the following: “What was it that made Ronnie Reagan the man for the job? For we can’t define greatness, but we can recognize it – and President Reagan had it in abundance. To him – more than any other leader we owe the quiet victory of liberty” on page 244; “He was one of a kind. A man who preached his ideas and is practicing them  – became the President of American and the World’s leader of all who love liberty”on page 246; “He was one of a kind” and “When the lord calls me home, whenever that may be, I will have the greatest love for this country of ours” on page 238. This copy was used by Thatcher to compose the speech she delivered at the Tribute to Freedom dinner on March 1, 2002 in Washington D.C. and at President Reagan’s Eulogy in 2004. From the library of Margaret Thatcher. A unique piece of history.

 

Margaret Thatcher first met Ronald Reagan one-on-one in April 1975 at the House of Commons in London. Reagan, then the governor of California, wrote a thank-you note to Thatcher, then the Conservative Party's opposition leader in Parliament. "Please know," Reagan wrote, "you have an enthusiastic supporter out here in the 'colonies.'" Thatcher recalled that meeting decades later in a 1997 speech at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. "As soon as I met Governor Reagan, I knew that we were of like mind, and manifestly so did he," Thatcher said. "We shared a rather unusual philosophy and we shared something else rather unusual as well: We were in politics because we wanted to put our philosophy into practice." Thatcher's tenure as prime minister coincided with Reagan's time in the White House. The Ronald Reagan library identifies Thatcher as Reagan's most prolific correspondent among heads of state and notes that they exchanged hundreds of letters, messages and telephone calls. "Ronnie and Margaret were political soulmates, committed to freedom and resolved to end communism," former first lady Nancy Reagan recalled in a statement Monday. "As prime minister, Margaret had the clear vision and strong determination to stand up for her beliefs at a time when so many were afraid to 'rock the boat.' As a result, she helped to bring about the collapse of the Soviet Union and the liberation of millions of people."