Stephen Beck's Autograph Page

Guest Columnist: Kevin Santry

A Little Research Reveals the Find of a Lifetime

From what I could see at first glance, it wasn't much of a letter. Largely uninteresting content, mostly apologizing for not having replied sooner. Serious glue stains on the back that showed through to the front affecting every line of text. Still, it wasn't every day that you see a John Glenn ALS offered for sale, especially one as early as 1959. I thought I might buy it, even though it was far from perfect.

  ....at first glance it wasn't much of a letter....

(Click to view large image)

Glenn was fairly well known in the late 50's, even before he became an astronaut. He had flown the first USA-coast-to-coast supersonic flight, nicknamed "Operation Bullet," as a kind of military publicity stunt. Glenn mentioned the flight in passing in the letter and again after his signature. I was getting more interested by the minute.

Glenn was a test pilot before he became an astronaut

One more thing really intrigued me. The date on the letter was April 6, 1959. I knew that the Mercury astronauts were introduced to the public in April 1959, but did not know the exact date. Several sources failed to produce a specific date. Wouldn't it be interesting if this letter were from somewhere near that time? This was worth a risk. I bought the letter immediately, wanting to know more about exactly what Glenn was doing at that time.

Researching the NASA events of early April 1959 proved difficult. I even read through "We Seven," the book written by all 7 Mercury astronauts, hoping to find out specifically what had happened that month. I never did find out exactly when the astronauts met the press, but I did see something much more interesting. According to a section written by Glenn, it was very easy for him to remember exactly when he got the call informing him of his selection as an astronaut. That day happened to be his wedding anniversary(!)

With that info, I set out on a hunt for a good Glenn biography. I thought the letter might possibly date within a few days of his selection for NASA, but I wanted to be sure. I struck out trying to find Glenn's wedding anniversary in encyclopedias, "Who's Who in Space," and even the NASA website. I even tried Glenn's Senate homepage, hoping it would be there. It wasn't. However, there was a link to a page for his wife Annie. On that page, I saw the magic words, "Annie and John Glenn were married on April 6, 1943."

This meant that Glenn wrote my letter on the exact day he found out he was going to be an astronaut!!

It wasn't at all hard to picture Glenn sitting around answering old mail while waiting for the phone to ring. I think my favorite part of the letter is the last sentence, which ends " ... if there is ever another cross-country record run I'm involved in, I'll try to answer more promptly." Three years later, Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, clearly shattering his old record!

Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth. He is also the oldest astronaut to fly in space (STS-95, October 1998.)

What had started out as a damaged letter had turned into a real treasure. Just goes to show what a little research can uncover!
 
 
Kevin Santry has a web page entitled "Collecting Cosmonaut Autographs." He lives in Massachusetts.

Archive of past columns: Moonwalkers, by Steve Gruber

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