Profiles In Courage.

KENNEDY, John F.

$125,000.00

Item Number: 134320

New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1956.

First edition of Kennedy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning work. Octavo, original half cloth, with eight pages of black-and-white photogravures. Association copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “To J. Edgar Hoover- a public servant of the highest courage- with the admiration of the author- John Kennedy.” The recipient, J. Edgar Hoover served as the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States for nearly 48 years, being first appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation – the FBI’s predecessor – in 1924 and was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935, where he remained director for another 37 years until his death in 1972. Hoover’s controversial anti-communist agenda as FBI director led him to be an ally of JFK’s father, Joe Kennedy, who was a successful businessman, an ideal capitalist, and a self-proclaimed enemy of communism. While JFK was also anti-communist, both he and his brother Robert clashed with Hoover over any number of issues, such as Civil Rights and organized crime, and Hoover supported Nixon during the Presidential campaign against JFK. A television docuseries was even made in the 80’s titled Hoover vs. The Kennedys: The Second Civil War, which follows the Hoover reign through an eight-year period, from JFK’s nomination to the Democratic ticket in 1960, through the Johnson years and the tragic assassinations that would mark the end of an era. Given that their relationship was notoriously tumultuous in later years, this positive inscription full of admiration, which was written soon after the book’s release in 1956, is all the more interesting. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Phil Grushkin. Foreword by Allan Nevins. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box made by the Harcourt Bindery. One of the finest association copies extant between these two looming figures of twentieth century American politics, with Hoover serving for nearly half a century and Kennedy inspiring future generations to serve.

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."