A very desirable SIGNED stated First Edition book set of the Memoirs of Harry S. Truman, presentation copies signed on the same day in May of 1956 in Florence, Italy. Hardcovers, published by Doubleday and Company in New York, including: a 1955 first edition of Volume One: Year of Decisions, signed and inscribed on the half-title page in fountain pen, "To Edward A. Bayne, with kindest regards, from Harry S. Truman, Florence, May 28-1956"; and a 1956 first edition of Volume Two: Years of Trial and Hope, signed and inscribed on the half-title page in fountain pen, "To Edward A. Bayne, from Harry S. Truman, Firenzi, 5-28-1956." Autographic condition: fine. Book condition: VG/VG-, 8vo. Volume One 596 pages - Volume Two 594 pages - Publishers' black cloth boards stamped in silver and blue with green topstain. Bayne's bookplate to front pastedowns (with offset toning to endpapers), light wear to edges and corners, spine tips softened, a few spots to the cloth boards, front hinges starting, and small creases, edge tears and sunning to dust jackets which are unclipped with the $5.00 price.
 
*Edward Ashley Bayne worked as a foreign affairs journalist and a specialist in Middle Eastern affairs and wrote numerous reports on current affairs in Italy, Somalia, and the Middle East from the 1950s to the 1960s. Art Historian Bernard Berenson introduced the President to Bayne at Berenson’s Florence home during Truman's visit to Italy in 1956, and Bayne's accounts of meetings with Truman reside in the archives of the University of Kansas and the Lilly Library at Indiana University.