1327. RICHARD E. BYRD (1888 - 1957) American aviator and explorer, first to fly over the South Pole and established the base "Little America". Fine content T.L.S. on Byrd Antarctic Expedition letterhead, 1p. 4to., Boston, Aug. 10,1928 to Audrey Ovington, daughter of pioneer pilot Earle Ovington. Byrd send thanks for the young girl's poem, mentions that her father is a "great fellow", and adds in his holograph postscript that Gene Tunney will be leaving for Europe and his signature will be tough to obtain. He closes: "Amundsen, I fear, is lost". Mounting remnants on verso show-through a bit, else very good. Sold with two additional signatures, those of DONALD MACMILLAN and PAUL SIPLE. Amundsen disappeared on June 18, 1928 while flying on a rescue mission with the famous Norwegian pilot Leif Dietrichson, the French pilot Rene Guilbaud, and three other Frenchmen, looking for missing members of Umberto Nobile's crew whose new airship the Italia had crashed while returning from the North Pole. A year later Byrd would make his famous flight to the South Pole. $200 -300