Dictionary Origin
Author Nguyễn Văn Khôn personally inscribes and gifts the dictionary to then-Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm.
This English-Vietnamese dictionary bears a handwritten inscription (dated May 27, 1955) by the author Nguyễn Văn Khôn to Ngô Đình Diệm, then Prime Minister—months before Diệm became the first President of South Vietnam. After Diệm’s assassination in 1963, the volume left the Presidential Palace. It came into the hands of Teacher Hoàng, a former palace press officer who, after his release from being imprisoned in "reeducation camps," used it to teach English to neighbors. In the late 1970s–1980s, amid postwar displacement, Mrs. Đặng Thị Ánh Tuyết helped pass the book from Teacher Hoàng to her younger brother who needed study materials after he had fled Vietnam by boat and had resettled in Canada. Tuyết's brother later returned it to her after she herself had resettled in Canada.
Object donated to the Vietnamese Heritage Museum by Đặng Thị Ánh Tuyết
Author Nguyễn Văn Khôn personally inscribes and gifts the dictionary to then-Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm.
Teacher Hoàng, a former press officer at the Presidential Palace, takes possession of the dictionary.
Dictionary sent by Teacher Hoàng to Mrs. Đặng Thị Ánh Tuyết’s younger brother who had escaped Vietnam by boat and resettled in Canada.
Dictionary given to Mrs. Đặng Thị Ánh Tuyết by her brother when she resettles in Canada.
Donated to the Vietnamese Heritage Museum.