JFK on American Heroes
KENNEDY, John F. Profiles in Courage: Decisive Moments in the Lives of Celebrated Americans. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1961.
8vo. Publisher’s blue imitation leather, gilt Presidential Seal to bottom right corner of front cover, spine lettered in gilt, gilt turn-ins, all edges gilt, blue silk place-marker, in original blue box; pp. [ii], xxiii, [2], 266 + blanks, with 4 ff. double-sided plates with black-and-white photographic illustrations after p. 100; dedication leaf signed in a secretarial hand, the space for the dedicatee’s name left blank; a few chips to corners of box; a fine copy.
A de luxe copy, intended for donors to the Democratic Party and issued in honour of John F. Kennedy’s inauguration, of his Pulitzer Prize-winning short biographies describing acts of bravery and integrity by eight United States Senators, first published in 1956 when Kennedy was Massachusetts Senator.
Kennedy had long been interested in the topic of political courage, beginning with his senior thesis at Harvard. Later published as Why England Slept, it dissects the failure of British political leaders in the 1930s to oppose popular resistance to re-arming, leaving the country ill-prepared for the Second World War. When he took a leave of absence from the Senate in 1954 to recover from back surgery, it was to the study of political courage that he dedicated his time. The result was this work featuring characters including John Quincy Adams, Sam Houston, and Daniel Webster. When he became president in 1961, it seemed only right to mark the occasion with a special reprint of his esteemed work. Although Kennedy was the book’s guiding spirit and chief architect, much of it was ghost-written by his speechwriter Ted Sorenson while the senator recuperated from his surgery. Also included is a John F. Kennedy funeral card (120 x 85 mm), with a photographic portrait of the president to the front and an extract from his inaugural address to the verso.
SKU: 2124457