Profiles in Courage.

KENNEDY, John F.

Item Number: 138082

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1956.

First edition, early printing of Kennedy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning work. Octavo, original half cloth, with eight pages of black-and-white photogravures. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “To Bill Graham, Best wishes, John Kennedy.” Near fine in a near fine dust jacket. Jack design by Phil Grushkin. Jacket photograph by Hank Walker. Uncommon in this condition and signed.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning book was written when Kennedy was the junior senator from Massachusetts, and it served as a clarion call to every American. The inspiring accounts of eight previous heroic acts by American patriots inspired the American public to remember the courage progress requires. Now, a half-century later, it remains a classic and a relevant testament to the national spirit that celebrates the most noble of human virtues. Kennedy relates these heroisms to sketches of American politicians who have risked their careers for principle. "A man does what he must," he wrote, "in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures-and that is the basis of all human morality."