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Has anyone considered doing a book about the last autographs of famous individuals?

The last official act of Robert E. Lee as president of Lee university was sign a carte d'visit of himself for a young girl admirer who met him on the steps of the university as he was leaving for the day. Within hours, Lee had a stroke and didn't survive long.

What was the last thing FDR signed?

Supposedly JFK's last in-person signature was on a newspaper handed to him on the morning of his death by a member of the housekeeping crew at the hotel he was staying at. I think it later sold for for $80,000+.

What was the last document/autograph signed by Elvis Presely?

Compiling such a book I'm sure would require a herculean effort. Besides, how could you track down the person at the Ambassador Hotel for whom RFK quickly scribbled his autograph within minutes of being shot.

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Permalink Reply by JK on March 30, 2023 at 7:22pm

Back in the summer of 2008 I wrote to English playwright Simon Gray. That August I received a handwritten response from him.

A few years later I came across the note card. I knew that he had been suffering from cancer when I wrote to him, so I took to the internet to see what became of him. It turns out he had passed away at night on the day he wrote me the note.

He's not quite on the level of the examples you gave but he's my contribution to the project.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on March 30, 2023 at 10:46pm

That would be cool. Write one!

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Permalink Reply by JK on March 31, 2023 at 12:51am

And there's the album John Lennon signed for his killer a few hours before being gunned down...

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Permalink Reply by Andrew Saunders on April 7, 2023 at 7:30pm

The Double Fantasy Album.

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Permalink Reply by Garrett Meadows on March 31, 2023 at 6:14am

Wow! I wonder what happened to the album Lennon signed before being killed? Did it ever show up on the market or is it in a museum? I'm surprised some bystander didn't surreptitiously spirit it away.

BTW, I read that Evelyn Lincoln's, JFK's secretary, basically ransacked his office after he died and had in her possession all kinds documents and artifacts.

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Permalink Reply by Garrett Meadows on March 31, 2023 at 6:15am

It's rather eerie to have gotten an autograph from someone who died shortly thereafter, such as Simon Gray.

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Permalink Reply by Andrew Saunders on April 7, 2023 at 7:33pm

It's kind of like someone's last spoken words.

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Permalink Reply by BallroomDays67 on March 31, 2023 at 7:43am

The story of George Harrison’s last autograph (well, sort of) is really sad and upsetting, and actually involved a lawsuit.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on March 31, 2023 at 11:27am

Thanks for reminding us about that, Ballroom. The doctor was disciplined and charged $5,000 by the medical board.

Harrison's family sued him for $10 million and asked for the guitar back. They settled by having the guitar disposed of per private agreement, and the family gave the doctor's son a new guitar.