White House Years.

KISSINGER, Henry.

Item Number: 124761

Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1979.

First edition of Kissinger’s National Book Award-winning memoir. Octavo, original blue cloth, illustrated with 48 pages of photographs and maps. Association copy, inscribed by the author on the half-title page, “To Bill Safire A valued colleague during most of the events described herein. With high regard (until his next critical column). Henry Kissinger.” The recipient, William Safire, was an important American author, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, journalist, and presidential speechwriter. He joined Nixon’s campaign in the 1960 Presidential race, and again in 1968. Following Nixon’s 1968 victory, Safire served as a presidential speechwriter for both Nixon and Vice President Spiro Agnew. He was a frequent guest on Meet The Press, describing himself as the voice of “libertarian conservatives” and authored several political columns, most notably his weekly column “On Language” which appeared in The New York Times Magazine from 1979 until the month of his death in 2009. He authored two books on grammar and linguistics: The New Language of Politics (1968) and what Zimmer called Safire’s “magnum opus,” Safire’s Political Dictionary. Safire later served as a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board from 1995 to 2004 and in 2006 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush. Fine in a fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Paul Bacon. Author photograph by Tom Blau. A fine association.

“An unlikely celebrity who drew fire from across the political spectrum, Henry Kissinger is widely recognized as one of the great American statesmen of the 20th century. According to biographer Robert Schulzinger, ‘Kissinger seizes the imagination because he engineered the most significant turning point in United States foreign policy since the beginning of the cold war’ (PBS). In this volume, for which he won the 1980 National Book Award for History, Kissinger discusses his work during President Nixon’s first term.