The Letters of John F. Kennedy

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.)