KENNEDY, John F.; Allan NEVINS (editor). The Strategy of Peace.

KENNEDY, John F.; Allan NEVINS (editor). The Strategy of Peace. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1960.

8vo. Original black cloth, lettered in red and orange to spine, in dust-jacket; pp. [xvi], 233, [1]; jacket with 2 closed marginal tears (repaired from the inside) and minor wear to upper outer corner of the fold, few nicks and short closed tears to edges, small chip to foot of spine; light toning to endpapers, otherwise near fine; ownership inscription ‘Alistair Cooke NYC. ‘60’ in blue ink to front free endpaper, and posthumous Cooke bookplate to front pastedown; with a John F. Kennedy’s U.S. Senate visiting card signed with autopen ‘Jack Kennedy’, and stapled to the verso of front free endpaper.

First edition, Alistair Cooke’s copy, with a U.S. Senate visiting card of John F. Kennedy, signed with autopen and stapled in.

The Strategy of Peace was published in 1960, during a closely contested presidential election campaign conducted against the backdrop of escalating tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. Drawing on Kennedy’s speeches and statements, the book sets out his positions on domestic and foreign policy and offers an important insight into the ideas underpinning his successful campaign. Its title became a defining Kennedy mantra, later used for his landmark 1963 address at American University in Washington, D.C., in which he called for a reassessment of U.S.–Soviet relations and an end to the nuclear arms race.

Provenance: From the library of Alistair Cooke (1908–2004), the distinguished journalist and broadcaster who served as The Guardian’s chief U.S. correspondent until 1972 and as the BBC’s North American correspondent. His Letter from America, broadcast from 1946 until his death, became the longest-running radio programme hosted by a single individual. Cooke closely covered JFK’s political career and assassination and was among the last people to speak to Robert Kennedy before his assassination on 5 June 1968.

SKU: 2121165