In Auction of Koch’s Possessions, a Trove of Letters

Courtesy of Doyle New York A collection of correspondence between former Mayor Edward I. Koch and various political and cultural figures will be auctioned off in November.

For those who couldn’t get enough of former Mayor Edward I. Koch while he was alive, Doyle Galleries will hold an auction on not one, but two days for those interested in his possessions, including letters, books, ephemera and furniture from his Greenwich Village apartment.

Among the items to be auctioned off on Nov. 18 and 25 is a note in which Jacqueline Onassis graciously declines the job of cultural affairs commissioner.

Many letters in the estate sale are from presidents and famous public officials, celebrities, and literary and entertainment figures. Most asking prices for groups of letters range from about $200 to $900.

The trove includes the 1983 typed letter signed in ink as both “Jackie” and “Jacqueline Onassis” declining the cultural affairs job, though she added that “it would have been an exciting challenge and a wonderful experience.”

“I shall always regret that I could not take on this responsibility,” she wrote. The job ultimately went to Bess Myerson.

Also being auctioned are letters from Clare Booth Luce, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Edward M. Kennedy, Henry Kissinger, Mario M. Cuomo, Rudolph W. Giuliani, Yitzhak Rabin, Jacques Chirac, Boutros Boutros Ghali, Margaret Thatcher, Anwar Sadat, Clarence Thomas, Colin Powell, Bob Dole, Janet Reno and Robert Kennedy Jr.

Geraldine A. Ferraro, the former Queens congresswoman and candidate for vice president, writes tartly, “During the campaign of 1984 when my world was falling down around me and you took a couple of gratuitous slaps at me, I don’t remember you calling to explain.”

Helen Hayes comments on a photograph sent by Mr. Koch: “We look like a couple of movie lovers playing our big scene.” Katharine Hepburn, turning down an award, writes, “This to me is a terrible burden … trying to be as fascinating, thrilling and brilliant as I’m supposed to be.”

Fred Friendly, describing a particular reporter as a reliable journalist, writes that “if she says I called you a buffoon, I’m sure she’s accurate.” And Elizabeth Taylor, in a telegram declining to attend an event at the Brooklyn Bridge, writes: “I wasn’t born in Brooklyn, but rather in London, where there once was a bridge, too… London’s bridge wound up being transported to America. And so did I.”

About 65 letters from Cardinal John O’Connor include one that the cardinal wrote during the municipal corruption scandals in 1986: “You are prayed for far more than you realize. I don’t call a man a ‘friend’ lightly. These are heartbreaking days for you. I’m here!”

In a handwritten note after Mr. Koch lost the 1989 election, the cardinal writes, “I hope you know you don’t have to be mayor for us to be friends.”

Besides the correspondence, the gallery will be auctioning a few copies of books he wrote, including one signed by Mr. Koch and Cardinal O’Connor, a Haggadah he owned and a portrait of him by the English photographer Norman Parkinson.

A sample of the correspondence, courtesy of Doyle New York, can be viewed below.