Apollo 8 Flown Gideon's Bible (New Testament, Psalms, Proverbs) Directly from the Personal Collection of Command Module Pilot James Lovell, Signed and Certified, with Signed LOA.  A pocket-sized black leather volume, 3" x 4.75" in overall size, with "New Testament/ Psalms/ Proverbs" stamped in gold on the front cover along with the Gideons International logo, a two-handled pitcher and torch (based on the biblical story of Gideon's victory over the Midianites described in Judges chapter 7). Lovell has written on the front endpaper: "On board Apollo 8/ on flight around moon/ 21-27 Dec 1968/ James Lovell". On the facing free endpaper, he had written: "James Lovell" and "Dec 1968". One interesting note is that this Bible had been in the possession of Frank Borman since the mission until recently, as noted in the LOA transcribed below. A rare and desirable religious memento from this landmark mission on which the crew read from the biblical Genesis creation story while circling the moon on Christmas Eve. Very fine.

Included with this lot is a signed Letter of Certification from Lovell on his company letterhead stating, in full: "I hereby certify that this New Testament Bible was on board Apollo 8 spacecraft on flight around the moon 21-27 December, 1968. My bible was just recently found in Frank Borman's personal preference kit and sent to me."

Gideons International, founded in Wisconsin in 1899, is an evangelical Christian association whose primary activity is distributing copies of the Bible free of charge. It is the oldest association of Christian businessmen and professional men in the United States. Their first free Bibles were placed in the rooms of the Superior Hotel in Superior, Montana, in 1908. Since that time, they have distributed more than two billion copies of the scriptures in over 190 countries around the world and in more than ninety languages.