Jun 21, 2018 - Sale 2483

Sale 2483 - Lot 217

Price Realized: $ 3,900
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN (TRUMAN, HARRY S.) Chicago Daily Tribune. [30], [8], [16] pages, each 23 1/2x16 3/4 inches, on 14 sheets (including the women's and sports sections); minimal toning. Two-star Home edition. Chicago, 3 November 1948

Additional Details

A remarkably fresh example of the most famous newspaper error edition of all time, declaring Harry Truman the loser of the 1948 election. The professional linotype operators at the Tribune were on strike at the time, forcing the publishers to go to press a few hours sooner than usual to accommodate their crude typesetting techniques. The publishers put their faith in the early polling from their Washington correspondent Arthur Sears Henning, whose accompanying article noted that "Dewey won the presidency by an overwhelming majority of electoral votes." When Truman's upset victory was announced, the Tribune sent trucks out to retrieve as many copies as possible of these error editions, but a few remained in private hands.
The strike not only prompted a premature headline, it resulted in stunningly amateurish typography. Much of the text was done on a regular typewriter, and five lines of text in the lead story were printed upside down.