1956 - 1958 ORIGINAL ARCHIVE OF 60+ TYPED AND MANUSCRIPT LETTERS WRITTEN BY A YOUNG FEMALE SAILOR AS SHE CIRCUMNAVIGATES THE WORLD ABOARD THE STORIED BRIGANTINE YANKEE AND THE REMARKABLE SAILING COUPLE IRVING AND EXY JOHNSON
On offer is a super, original 1956 - 1958 archive of 60+ mostly type written letters, 200+ pages in all, with copious handwritten additions, some manuscript letters all authored by a young 18 - 20 (?) year old woman named P. P. Riley who often signs letters PPPPP or Peggy Pat to mom and dad [Mr. and Mrs. Robert S. Riley] of Middlebury Connecticut. Zippy and Nosey, siblings we surmise, and several other family and friends are also addressed. Miss Riley is on the trip of a lifetime helping crew the storied Brigantine Yankee for famed sailors Irving Johnson and his wife Electa who also went by the nickname Exy. This trip aboard the famed Brigantine Yankee which can be tracked from the datelines of the letters make for one of the most exotic groups of correspondence we have seen. Adding even more of an air to this archive of the group's circumnavigation, the Johnson's last, was the fact that it was documented by the National Geographic Society for television. Long breezy, very detailed, intimate letters covering the papers she used in smallish type provide fascinating detail delivered with a youthful exuberance that jumps off the pages. She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1960. Only a bare few of the envelopes are present. Overall G+.
