Inscribed Copy of Selections from the Letters and Legal Papers..

1961. A Curious Connection Arnold, Thurman [1891-1969]. Selections from the Letters and Legal Papers of Thurman Arnold. [Washington, DC: Merkle Press, 1961]. 142 pp. Portrait. Publisher's red cloth, gilt title to spine, author's presentation inscription (upside-down) "To Dr & Mrs Wohlthat/ With affectionate greetings/ Thurman Arnold" to rear free endpaper, newspaper clippings (a review of Arnold's book Fair Fights and Foul with ink underlining, a photo of Arnold and an advertisement for FACT Magazine) laid-in with resulting offsetting, internally clean. $350. * With a foreword by William O. Douglas. "Dr. & Mrs. Wohlthat" are likely Helmuth Wohlthat [1893-1982] and his wife. Wohlthat was a high-ranking civil servant in the Nazi goverment. He reported to Hermann Goring and worked closely with him on the Four Year Plan and Aryanization, the seizure of Jewish property in order to force Jews out of German economic life. Described as "Fuhrer Hitler's traveling salesman" in a 1939 article in Time Magazine, he also did high-level diplomatic work securing trade agreements and raw materials. Wohlthat was not prosecuted for his work for the Nazis. After the war, he secured a number of lucrative consulting positions and frequently traveled to the United States, where he became friendly with a number of high-ranking American officials. In 1961, he and Arnold both attended a luncheon honoring the chancellor of West Germany. Arnold "had an admiration for postwar Germany and represented several German clients. ... He admired the way Germany (and later the European Economic Community) embraced economic competition and antitrust law as part of its denazification and rebuilding" (Waller). The warmth of the inscription indicates that this admiration extended to Wohlthat. Waller, Thurman Arnold: A Biography 160.