[Item #80549] Rand McNally's America Atlas (Special Commemorative Edition for the Houston Police Department's Bicycle Relay Team for the Leukemia Society of America). George H. W. Bush.

Rand McNally's America Atlas (Special Commemorative Edition for the Houston Police Department's Bicycle Relay Team for the Leukemia Society of America)

Hardcover, Chicago: Rand McNally, 1990. Second Edition; Second Printing. Very Good+. SIGNED and INSCRIBED by George H. W. Bush on the official letterhead of Air Force Two. The Houston Police Department has a bicycle relay team that raises money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of America. The relay team first's fund raising ride was in 1981 and the rides continue to this day. This pictorial atlas of America features a front cover with a map of the US showing the past fund raising bicyle rides made by HPD officers. The longest ride was from Houston to Vancouver, a trip of 2,700 miles. The HPD has raised more than $5,000,000 in the last 40 years and sometimes raises $300,000 in a single year. George H. W. Bush and his wife Barbara lost a daughter to leukemia. The ride for a cure was a cause dear to their hearts. The inside of the front cover of this atlas is inscribed and signed by George H. W. Bush while he was serving his second term as VP in 1985. The inscription and signature is on the letterhead of Air Force Two, the plane reserved for the sitting VP. Curiously, the inscription is hand dated March 2, 1985 by Bush, while the copyright date of the book gives 1990 as the book's printing date. I believe HPD used the same sized atlas to commemorate their rides every year and that Bush's office knew how large the atlas was. The letterhead is exactly the correct size to fit the atlas perfectly. It appears to actually be the pastedown of the atlas itself and only carefully comparision of the dates indicates that can't be the case. HPD officers participated in more than 1 ride and therefore could have more than 1 atlas. It appears that Bush inscribed and signed the letterhead for an officer who participated in multiple rides and had multiple atlases and the officer attached the letterhead to a later ride's atlas. Please see our photo for Bush's full inscription in which he mentions losing a daughter to leukemia. The letterhead, inscription, and signature are genuine, not facsimile. You can feel the indentation of Bush's pen (and the embossed areas of the official letterhead) when you gently run your fingertips over it all. Letterhead, inscription, and signature are beautiful, clean, and bright. Atlas itself is beautiful internally. Covers a bit rubbed with edgewear. Boards slightly bowed. Cover gilt decorations of map with bicycle ride destinations bright. Atlas maps by Rand McNally, atlas photographs by David Meunch. Ships same or next business day well protected in a box. This is an oversize book. It's a pictorial atlas. No international orders. Please do not order expedited/priority unless you are willing to pay the true cost of postage, it will be significantly more than the shipping charges shown on this website. ; 4to 11" - 13" tall; 224 pages; Signed by Notable Personage, Related. [Item #80549]

Price: $400.00

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