The one constant “home” in Kennedy’s life was the family’s summer house in Hyannis Port on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where he spent many summers with family and friends.
John F. Kennedy
A Portrait
Kennedy valued the power of language to enlighten and inspire. He was not only a talented orator, but he was a life-long reader and the author of several books and essays.
As a boy, Kennedy “gobbled books” according to his mother. He was often ill and took comfort in adventure books by authors such as Robert Louis Stevenson, Rudyard Kipling, and J.M. Barrie. Kennedy attended college briefly at Princeton before graduating from Harvard. His senior thesis would become his first book, Why England Slept.
Kennedy was a senator when he wrote his second book, the Pulitzer Prize–winning Profiles in Courage while he was recovering from back surgery. It was followed by A Nation of Immigrants, which drew inspiration from his own family history of immigration from Ireland.
As President, Kennedy read 10 newspapers daily and 16 periodicals regularly. Kennedy “believed in the power and glory of words—both written and spoken,” wrote his close advisor Theodore Sorensen, “to win votes, to set goals, to change minds, to move nations.”
Exhibit Highlights
- Collection of influential books—from childhood through politics—read or written by JFK.
- Multi-screen video biography of John F. Kennedy including his iconic speeches.
Kennedy family (left to right) Robert, John, Eunice, Jean, Joseph, Rose, Patricia, Kathleen, Joseph Jr., and Rosemary, Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, 1931.
Photograph by Richard Sears. Kennedy Family Collection. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston.
Reading was a habit Kennedy developed in his childhood and kept throughout his life. “Roosevelt got most of his ideas from talking to people,” Kennedy told an associate, “I got most of mine from reading.”
Kennedy’s first book, Why England Slept, examines the reasons England failed to prevent World War II, drawing on observations from his European travels and the access afforded to him by his diplomat father.
Kennedy’s second book, Profiles in Courage, examines acts of political bravery and integrity by eight United States Senators including John Quincy Adams and Daniel Webster. The book became a best seller and was translated into several languages. In 1957 it was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Biography.
Future American president John F. Kennedy sits at a typewriter, holding open his published thesis, “Why England Slept,” c. 1940.
Photograph by Richard Sears. Kennedy Family Collection. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston.
Kennedy joined the Navy in 1941 just before the United States entered World War II. In 1943 he arrived in the Solomon Islands to take command of PT 109, a patrol torpedo boat. On the night of August 1, 1943, PT 109 was struck by the Japanese warship Amagiri and severed in two. Kennedy and the 11 surviving crew members swam three miles to the nearest island—John dragging an injured crewmate by his life-vest with his teeth.
Seven days later, after a message Kennedy carved into a coconut reached Lieutenant Arthur Evans (via native islanders), Kennedy and his crew were rescued. Kennedy was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal as well as a Purple Heart.
John F. Kennedy in his Navy uniform.
© Caroline Kennedy. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Collection. The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston
Kennedy ran for the US House of Representatives in 1946, representing a working-class Boston neighborhood. He ran his campaign, which was supported and financed by his father, from his maternal grandfather’s home at the Bellevue Hotel in Beacon Hill, Boston. He won the seat with 42 percent of the vote and served until 1953 when he was elected to the Senate. Kennedy learned valuable lessons about connecting with voters during his first campaign that he carried with him throughout his political career.
Congressional candidate John F. Kennedy at the Bellevue Hotel, Boston, Massachusetts, September 1946.
Yale Joel/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier were introduced at a dinner party in May of 1952. Jacqueline was working for the Washington Times Herald and John was a congressman running for the US Senate. “I leaned across the asparagus,” Kennedy recalled, “and asked for a date.” A year later they were engaged.
The wedding was held at St. Mary’s Church in Newport, Rhode Island on September 12, 1953. The reception was attended by 1,200 guests and the wedding was national news. Jacqueline’s wedding dress and those of her bridesmaids were designed by Anne Lowe, a Black New York-based designer known for her debutante gowns.
Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy on their wedding day, Newport, Rhode Island, September 12, 1953.
Lisa Larsen/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock