INSCRIBED BY FERDINAND MARCOS TO ACCLAIMED FOREIGN REPORTER JOSEPH KINGSBURY-SMITH

(MARCOS, Ferdinand) MARAMAG, Ileana. The Second Marcos Inaugural. (Printed in Japan: Toppan Printing Company, 1970). Quarto, original blue cloth gilt, original dust jacket. $1200.

First edition of this commemoration of Philippine president (later dictator) Ferdinand Marcos’ second inauguration, abundantly illustrated with black-and-white and color photographs (many full-page), inscribed by Marcos to award-winning foreign reporter Joseph Kingsbury-Smith and his wife, “June 21, 1971, Malacanang Palace, Manila, Philippines. To Eileen and Joe, with affection and best wishes, Ferdinand Marcos.”

First elected president in 1965, Marcos won reelection in 1969, making him "the first Philippine president to serve a second term. During his first term he had made progress in agriculture, industry and education. Yet his administration was troubled by increasing student demonstrations and violent urban-guerrilla activities. On September 21, 1972, Marcos imposed martial law. Holding that communist and subversive forces precipitated the crisis, he acted swiftly; opposition politicians were jailed and the armed forces became an arm of the regime" (Britannica Online). Marcos held onto power until 1986, when— in the aftermath of opposition leader Benigno Aquino's assassination and the election of his widow, Corazon, as president— he fled the country and entered exile in Hawaii. This generously illustrated volume commemorates Marcos' second inauguration. It also includes remembrances of all previous Philippine presidential inaugurations. Inscribed to Joseph Kingsbury-Smith, former national editor of and chief foreign writer for Hearst Newspapers. The series of interviews he (along with William Randolph Hearst, Jr. and Frank Conniff) conducted with Nikita Khrushchev and other Soviet leaders won a Pulitzer Prize in 1956.

Dust jacket lightly soiled and toned. Book fine. Scarce, especially inscribed.