# Morgenthau Diaries, Volume 469: Treasury memorandum of December 4, 1941 on a book about "the Nucky Johnson case"

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/items/nara-28276860-morgenthau-diaries-vol-469-1941-12/

A Treasury inter-office memorandum lists writers volunteering for the Defense Savings campaign, including a note that Reader's Digest advanced $1,000 to Jack Alexander for a piece that "may later be printed as a book on the Nucky Johnson case."

The stored image is diary page 50 of volume 469 (page 56 of the NARA PDF): a Treasury Department inter-office communication dated December 4, 1941, to Ferdinand Kuhn, Jr. from Julian Street, Jr., reporting on people who had volunteered to help the Treasury's Defense Savings campaign. Under "Writers," item 1 reads that the book editor of the Reader's Digest "has advanced a thousand dollars to Jack Alexander for the preparation of a long piece which may later be printed as a book on the Nucky Johnson case. Mr. Alexander has already consulted Mr. Irey and will start in on the actual writing of the piece in the middle of January." The other items concern unrelated writers.

The memorandum says nothing about the case itself. It is filed because it shows the Treasury's role in the publicity that followed the prosecution. The NARA catalog dates the volume December 5 and 6, 1941; the memorandum is dated December 4.

## Sources

- National Archives Catalog, Henry Morgenthau, Jr. Papers, Diaries of Henry Morgenthau, Jr., Franklin D. Roosevelt Library (National Archives): https://catalog.archives.gov/medialive/60/2768/28276860/content/presidential-libraries/roosevelt/FDR-MORGEN/589213/md0636.pdf