RAREST; THREE KNOWN COPIES, Warren G. Harding "NEGRO

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This controversial First (and only) Edition book by William Estabrook Chancellor was among estate items that we inherited from a family member in 1988. At that time we had no idea of the rarity or the subject of the book as we had numerous items from the estate. What we know now is that t are only three known copies in existence. The reason that the book is almost extinct relates to the Federal Government destroying all the plates and books c.1922 because the author, Chancellor, purported to show that the President of the United States. Warren G. Harding, was a Negro. Harding's biographer, S. H. Adams, called Chancellor's book "one of the most sensational books in our political history." Chancellor was a professor at Wooster College in Ohio and was known to hold strong racial views. His book caused such a stir that early in 1922, a Post Office Investigator named C.S. Zimmerman learned of this book and reported it to William J. Burns, the director of the Justice Department's Bureau of Investigation (today's FBI). The Department then took over the case from the Secret Service, and US Attorney Daugherty then told Burns to suppress the book. Bureau of Investigation agents went to Ohio and bought or otherwise obtained every copy they could find. The agents also seized the printing plates and stock of books from the Sentinel Press office read more

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