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Summary
Summary
John Fitzgerald Kennedy led his nation for little more than a thousand days, yet his presidency is intensely remembered, not merely as a byproduct of his tragic fate. Kennedy steered the nation away from the brink of nuclear war, initiated the first nuclear test ban treaty, created the Peace Corps, and launched America on its mission to the moon and beyond. JFK inspired a nation, particularly the massive generation of baby boomers, injecting hope and revitalizing faith in the American project.
2013 will mark the fiftieth anniversary of Kennedy's untimely death, a milestone to be marked by an avalanche of new books on his life and importance. Martin Sandler's The Letters of John F. Kennedy will stand out among them, as the only book that draws on letters from and to Kennedy, as collected at the Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Drawn from more than two million letters on file at the library--many never before published--this project presents readers with a portrait of both Kennedy the politician and Kennedy the man, as well as the times he lived in.
Letters to and from the likes of Martin Luther King Jr, Clare Booth Luce, Pearl Buck, John Wayne, Albert Schweitzer, Linus Pauling, Willy Brandt, Eleanor Roosevelt, Nikita Khruschev, Harry Truman, Herbert Hoover, a young John Kerry, and Ngo Dinh Diem are complemented by letters from ordinary citizens, schoolchildren, and concerned Americans. Each letter will be accompanied by lively and informative contextualization. Facsimiles of many letters will appear, along with photographs and other visual ephemera from the Kennedy Library and Museum.
Author Notes
When he was elected the nation's thirty-fifth President, John Fitzgerald Kennedy became the youngest man and the first Roman Catholic elected to the Oval Office. Some Americans had opposed his candidacy because they feared that his religion would influence his decisions as President. Yet fascination with his personality, style, intelligence, wit, and character overshadowed these fears for many people. Articulate and forward looking, but with a great sense of the past, Kennedy was the only U.S. President to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize in biography. He won the prize in 1957 for Profiles in Courage (1956), a book about several Americans who had made courageous decisions. Kennedy wrote the book while recuperating from surgery to repair a spinal injury.
Born in Brookline, Massuchusetts, to a wealthy and politically ambitious father, Kennedy received a Harvard education. In 1940, while acting as secretary to his ambassador father in London, he wrote Why England Slept, an interpretation of England's failure to recognize the danger of the Nazi menace. As a PT-boat commander in World War II, he was seriously injured when his boat was cut in half and sunk. After the war, in 1946, he was elected to the U.S. Congress, where he served three terms in the House of Representatives before election to the Senate in 1952 and again in 1958.
Elected President in 1960 in a close victory over Richard Nixon, Kennedy hoped to move the nation to a "New Frontier." He urged legislative programs to spur the economy, expand federal aid to education, renew blighted urban areas, eliminate racial segregation in public places, and institute medical care for the aged. But most of Kennedy's programs were stalled in Congress when he was assassinated in November 1963. It was left to Lyndon B. Johnson - Kennedy's successor in the presidency - to get Congress to enact the New Frontier legislation.
In foreign affairs, Kennedy did not fare well in the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961, but he acted strongly in the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, averting a military confrontation with the Soviet Union. His call to commitment in his inaugural speech - "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country" - inspired many young people in developing nations, and other areas of government service.
Kennedy's presidency was cut short on November 22, 1963, when he was shot to death while riding in an open car during a political visit to Dallas, Texas. A shocked nation watched as he was buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Schooled by Eleanor Roosevelt and questioned by frantic Baptists, the young Catholic senator's candidacy and fast-paced presidency are documented by a diverse collection of letters, including those from unabashed schoolchildren, leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Billy Graham, world leaders like Winston Churchill, and the Japanese captain who rammed into his PT-109 patrol boat during WWII. Sandler (Kennedy Through the Lens) primarily focuses on the positive, and on correspondence illuminating Kennedy's positions on controversial matters-sidestepping his extramarital activities but contributing to conspiracy theories-while framing the dialogue with concise, informative descriptions to provide context. While Harry Truman's plainspoken support still entertains, it's Kennedy's replies to numerous school children that reveal both heart and humor even as he deals with civil rights, space missions, nuclear proliferation, and Vietnam. Most substantive are the increasingly relaxed communications between Kennedy and Krushchev until the sudden, tense missives spanning the Cuban Missile Crisis. Sandler humanizes the near-mythical president through his own eloquent words in a way that both academics and casual readers will appreciate. B&w illus. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A selection of letters to and from John F. Kennedy written over the course of 35 years. Sandler (Imprisoned: The Betrayal of Japanese Americans During World War II, 2013, etc.) asserts that "one can discover more about Kennedy the man, Kennedy the president, and the extraordinary and harrowing times in which he lived by reading his correspondence than through any number of the scores of books that have been written about him." This volume, however, presents only about 75 letters by Kennedy, many quite short. Sandler fills out the remainder of the book with letters and telegrams to Kennedy from correspondents ranging from Queen Elizabeth and Billy Graham to ordinary American voters and schoolchildren. Most of the letters appear in three sections, introduced in adulatory prose, covering the presidential election of 1960, domestic policies of the administration and foreign crises. These include a tactful exchange with Eleanor Roosevelt, firmly rebutting her assertion that Joseph Kennedy was attempting to buy the presidency for his son; frequent well-deserved hectoring missives from Martin Luther King Jr. and other black leaders urging Kennedy to do more to support their efforts; and secret letters to and from Nikita Khrushchev about the Berlin and Cuban missile crises, when Kennedy was struggling to overcome the Russian's perception that he was a lightweight. A memo to the commander of NATO forces in Europe in which Kennedy lays out the sequence of authorized responses to Soviet provocations over Berlin, up to and including the use of nuclear weapons, is particularly chilling. Most striking to the modern ear is Kennedy's ability to set forth specific and carefully considered policies in crisp, clear sentences, a talent that has been in short supply at the upper levels of American politics for quite some time. Though remarkably comprehensive for its limited length, more of Kennedy's voice would have served Sandler's purpose better.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Fifty years after his murder in Dallas, John F. Kennedy remains a widely revered figure, and his life remains an object of fascination. This collection of correspondence to and from Kennedy follows his life from childhood to some of the key episodes of his presidency. Some of the early letters, like the one requesting a raise in his allowance, may seem cloying. Once he reaches adulthood, though, his letters reveal an increasingly sophisticated young man with sharp political instincts long before his political career was launched. For example, his advice to his ambassador father on how to shed the tag of appeaser hints at Kennedy's later skill at manipulating his own public image. The most interesting and substantial correspondence occurred during his administration, including his exchanges with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., other civil rights leaders, and southern governors at critical moments in the fight against Jim Crow. This is an informative collection clearly designed to paint Kennedy in a positive light.--Freeman, Jay Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Sandler (formerly history, Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst; Kennedy Through the Lens) culled these letters from more than two million pieces at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. The book is a first, containing not just JFK's letters but the other side of the correspondence as well. Sandler does fine work selecting representative letters from each phase of Kennedy's life: his early years; the political campaigns; a crisis-filled presidency; and, through a small selection of condolence letters to Jacqueline Kennedy, his legacy. Each chapter is prefaced by a four- to five-page overview, and each letter is preceded by explanatory comments. Readers will appreciate how fine a writer Kennedy was in an era when letter writing was still considered an art. They will enjoy his sense of humor revealed in the many letters from children to which he responded. There's also correspondence with world leaders, U.S. politicians, civil rights advocates, and officials and celebrities who later burnished the Camelot mystique. Several secret letters to and from Nikita Khrushchev attest to the importance of high-level communication in preventing nuclear war. Interestingly, Sandler ponders whether JFK would have lived through a second term given the life-threatening illnesses he endured from childhood. VERDICT This lively, well-chosen compilation offers meaningful portraits from life in the Kennedy years. It will fascinate general readers as well as scholars of the era.-KH (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
