John F. Kennedy: Why books were a big part of his life
| Washington
John F. Kennedy was a voracious reader. In part this was due to the ill health that led to many invalid days in bed as a youth. He was often stuck in hospital stays for tests and treatment. Visitors would remark that the thin, young patient could hardly be seen behind the books piled around his pillow.
Adult visitors were sometimes surprised at how many of those books were serious histories.
鈥淚 was very impressed, because at that point this very young child was reading 鈥楾he World Crisis鈥� by Winston Churchill,鈥� said a friend of father Joseph P. Kennedy who saw JFK in the Mayo Clinic in 1934.
Throughout his life Kennedy loved what today might be considered dusty tomes. He read most if not every book Churchill wrote. In an article for Life Magazine in 1961 he listed as among his favorites Churchill鈥檚 million-word-long biography of ancestor John Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough.
Churchill said he undertook Marlborough鈥檚 life to rescue his reputation from the smears of past historians. Perhaps the young Kennedy was thrilled by Churchill鈥檚 recitations of Marlborough鈥檚 many military victories.
鈥淚t is the common boast of his champions that he never fought a battle that he did not win, nor besieged a fortress he did not take,鈥� wrote Churchill.
As he got older, another book Kennedy cited often was John Buchan鈥檚 memoir 鈥淧ilgrim鈥檚 Way,鈥� published posthumously in 1940. A British aristocrat, Buchan had served in the Boer War and World War I. He later rose to be governor general of Canada. 鈥淧ilgrim鈥檚 Way鈥� is something of an elegy for the many friends and promising youths swept away in the Great War鈥檚 trenches.
One of those was Raymond Asquith, son of the British Liberal Prime Minister H.H. Asquith, who died in the Battle of the Somme in 1916. Buchan had known Asquith in school and admired him, and in 鈥淧ilgrim鈥檚 Way鈥� he wrote: 鈥淗e loved his youth, and his youth has become eternal. Debonair and brilliant and brave, he is now part of that immortal England which knows not age or weariness or defeat鈥�.
Kennedy marked this passage in his copy of the book, writes historian and journalist Nigel Hamilton in his 鈥淛FK: Reckless Youth.鈥� Asquith was the clever son of a powerful man, light-hearted and high-spirited in college, as was Kennedy.
鈥淒id Jack identify with Asquith?鈥� wrote Hamilton.
JFK gave Jacqueline Bouvier a copy of 鈥淧ilgrim鈥檚 Way鈥� when courting her. It was meant to explain to her what sort of person he was.
鈥淛ackie . . . was captivated. . . None of the young men touted by her mother had ever done anything like that,鈥� writes author Barbara Leaming in her book 鈥淢rs. Kennedy.鈥�
Kennedy also gave Jackie Lord David Cecil鈥檚 鈥淭he Young Melbourne,鈥� which describes the early years of a man who became Britain鈥檚 Prime Minister from 1834 to 1841. It delves deeply into the world of Whig aristocrats of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, men who moved constantly between episodes of high political seriousness and intense pleasure, notes Leaming.
As President, Kennedy pushed the works of Ian Fleming, creator of British agent 007, James Bond. He listed Fleming鈥檚 鈥淔rom Russia with Love鈥� as one of his favorites on his Life Magazine list.
Fleming, of course, famously served himself in British intelligence during World War II. Reportedly Kennedy met Fleming at a dinner in 1960 and asked him how he might rid the US of troublesome Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Fleming told him to convince Castro that his beard attracted radiation, which could cause him to shave it and lose his iconic revolutionary identity.
聽Kennedy also admired Ernest Hemingway. In the opening of his own book 鈥淧rofiles in Courage,鈥� JFK quoted Hemingway鈥檚 description of courage as 鈥榞race under pressure鈥�.
The two men never met. But after Hemingway鈥檚 death in 1961, the Kennedy administration arranged for his widow Mary to enter Cuba, despite the travel ban in place. Once there she retrieved personal papers and other items from Hemingway鈥檚 Cuban villa Finca Vigia, which they had fled during Castro鈥檚 revolution.
She later donated Hemingway鈥檚 papers to the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library and Museum. There鈥檚 a in the JFK Library鈥檚 Boston waterfront building.
