Truman Harry

President Harry S. Truman Signed Time Cover, 1948 Man of the Year


A January 3, 1949 issue of Time Magazine (Volume LIII, Number 1) featuring 33rd U.S. President Harry S. Truman (1884-1972) on the front cover, inscribed and signed by him as "To Alexander F. Nahas / from Harry S. Truman" near bottom. With vividly colored and entirely intact front and back softcovers, and colored insets found within. Expected wear includes light overall toning and a few wrinkles and scuffs, else near fine. 68pp. 8.25" x 11.125".


The front cover, after an original illustration by Ernest Hamlin Baker (1889-1975), depicts President Truman framed against an apocalyptic backdrop of swirling, purple clouds and a ticking wall clock. Captioned: "Man of the Year / A popular victory and a new load of hay.'"


This issue of Time was published as a retrospective of 1948, a year of tremendous change on both the world stage and on the home front. The lead article gives a synopsis of major political, economic, and cultural events and trends. 1948 was the year of the Berlin Airlift, the rise of Mao Tse-Tung, the assassination of Gandhi, and the formation of Israel. It also witnessed an increase in American wages, a continuation of the postwar baby boom, and the advent of bebop and the quiz show.


Time's Cover Story entitled "Fighter in a Fighting Year" appears under its "The Nation" category between p. 9-12. Its focus was sitting President Harry S. Truman, who had, defying everyone's predictions, won the  presidential election a few months earlier. The Times rhapsodized about the President's victory in this editorial.


Below is a representative excerpt:


"With their ballots on Nov. 2, the U.S. people made Harry Truman the Man of 1948…Man Nobody Wanted. Harry Truman began his year of triumph a sorely beset man. He was popular with almost nobody. The country grinned at the G.O.P. jeers: 'Don't shoot the piano player, he's doing the best he can,' 'To err is Truman,' 'I'm just mild about Harry'…But Harry Truman was not the abjectly humble man of 1945 who had begged every casual visitor to pray for him…In his new term, the man of 1948 would carry the full weight of driving that policy to a decision."


Truman dedicated this magazine issue to Alexander F. Nahas (1920-2016). Born in Marseilles to a missionary family, he later lived in Danbury, Connecticut and became a merchant marine and government bureaucrat.

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