John F. Kennedy

This Typed Letter Signed has been authentically signed by JFK, not Autopen or a secretary, consistent with exemplars from his days in Congress. It comes to us from the estate of noted New England architect, William Roger Greeley, a contemporary of Frank Lloyd Wright. A clipping from a newsletter published two days prior announces Congressman Kennedy (“Just returned from Europe and the Far East”) as guest speaker for the Massachusetts Building Congress Annual Dinner Meeting on January 10, 1952. Congressman Kennedy was quick to follow-up the next day, likely implying Mr. Greeley and friends were big campaign donors.

JOHN F. KENNEDY (1917-1963). U.S. President, Senator and Member of the House of Representatives. Of Irish descent, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on May 29, 1917. Graduating from Harvard in 1940, he entered the Navy. In 1943, when his PT boat was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer, Kennedy, despite grave injuries, led the survivors through perilous waters to safety.

Back from the war, he became a Democratic Congressman from the Boston area, advancing in 1953 to the Senate. He married Jacqueline Bouvier on September 12, 1953. In 1955, while recuperating from a back operation, he wrote Profiles in Courage, which won the Pulitzer Prize in history.

In 1956 Kennedy almost gained the Democratic nomination for Vice President, and four years later was a first-ballot nominee for President. Millions watched his television debates with the Republican candidate, Richard M. Nixon. Winning by a narrow margin in the popular vote, Kennedy became the first Roman Catholic President.

His Inaugural Address offered the memorable injunction: “Ask not what your country can do for you–ask what you can do for your country.” As President, he set out to redeem his campaign pledge to get America moving again. His economic programs launched the country on its longest sustained expansion since World War II; before his death, he laid plans for a massive assault on persisting pockets of privation and poverty.

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