May 07, 2020 - Sale 2534

Sale 2534 - Lot 338

Price Realized: $ 1,375
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600
(MILITARY.) Travis, Lewis D. Letters from a young soldier stationed in Japan after World War Two. 39 items in one box (0.2 linear feet): 25 Autograph Letters Signed to mother Gladys M. Travis and one to brother James "Cubby" Travis of Atlanta, GA; with 5 photographs and 8 other family letters; condition generally strong. Vp, bulk 1954-56
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Additional Details

Lewis D. Travis (1934-2012) was an African-American from Atlanta who served a two-year stint as a private in the 508th Airborne Regimental Combat Team. He was stationed in Camp Wood at the southern end of Japan from 1954 to 1956. A few of his letters discuss his military work, as when he mentioned "We are having some trouble over here. One of our plane crash 29 Nov., and we been look for it. . . . No one was kill, they all jump out of the plane" (2 December 1955). Four days later he reported on his planned first parachute jump: "I'm jumping on my birthday Dec 13 and I think I'm going to like it just fine. I hope nothin will happen to me" (6 December 1955). Other letters discuss his post-service plans under the G.I. Bill: "When I do get out, I'll have the down payment for us . . . and I'll be going back to school and be drawing $110 dollars a month. I can go to school for three years" (19 September 1955). His 8 October 1955 letter asks her to send a wish list of six 45-rpm records by the Clovers, the Drifts and Little Walter; on 4 November he requested six more. Travis was very enthusiastic about Japan, writing "I just love it over hear. I don't think I'll be home any more. I wish you could see Japan" (12 July 1955) and later musing "I think I'm going to marry a Japanese girl. I'm send you her picture, tell me how she look, and send the picture back to me in your next letter" (4 September 1955). 5 snapshots of his unnamed Japanese girlfriend are included in the collection.
Also included are 6 letters to Gladys Travis from her nephew John T. Bowen, also serving in the military at the same time, all dated June to November 1955. He served in an ambulance company in the 9th Infantry Division in Germany. Finally, there is one letter to Gladys from her husband Lee Donald Travis (1914-1966) during his own Army service, undated but in a censor-stamped envelope postmarked 22 December 1944.