Update To My Kennedy Book Collection (2023)

It has now been three years since the passing of Jean Kennedy Smith (1928-2020), and on this solemn anniversary, I wanted to do something to honor her memory. So, I thought I would create a blog entry on five new acquisitions to my Kennedy Book Collection, which I have referred to as my "Kennedy Corner." This is my first update in exactly one year. I also want to share my desires for future acquisitions of books, so the last half of this entry may read like a Christmas Wish List. I apologize in advance, and I hope I won’t bore the reader.

To begin, my acquisition of my three new books began last year in June of 2022, when I purchased a copy of "1961 Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy" through an online order.

Four months later in September, I won a bid for "1962 Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, John F. Kennedy" after a seller was offering it for $19.99 on eBay, to which I am thankful that no one else was bidding.

From that time until May of this year, I purchased no books, although I periodically checked to find a third volume to complete my public papers collection. It was then I discovered that there was a three-volume set of President Kennedy’s public papers for $80.00 on eBay. They are normally on sale at the range of two hundred dollars. The seller and I soon negotiated and agreed to sell it to me $55.00. With no other way to obtain only a third volume on its own, I accepted the offer. I ordered the books on May 7th, and they were delivered to my home only four days later.

 

They arrived just eighteen days before John F. Kennedy’s 106th Birthday on May 29. I was so elated to finally have the complete set of JFK’s public papers. This meant that I now had access to every speech and press conference transcripts that President Kennedy stated during his time in office that has been allowed to be made public. If I am ever writing a paper on President Kennedy for whenever I return to school, I could use them as primary sources and perhaps I could use them for future writing projects as well. With the newly acquired three volume set, I had to rearrange my bookshelf to so that the books would fit into the shelves. And so, without further ado, here is my rearrangement of my “Kennedy Korner.” 

On the evening of May 28, with the shelves rearranged just in time for President Kennedy’s birthday,  I took photos of my bookshelf meant to honor the scholarship on the Kennedy Family. The following morning on JFK’s birthday, I shared my photos on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for my followers and acquaintances to see. I was relieved to see positive feedback, to which I was delighted to read.

Eighteen days after JFK's recent birthday (which leads to yesterday on June 16th), there was a set I discovered online called “Robert Kennedy & His Times” by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. Volumes 1 & 2 in hardcover with dust jackets on sale for $14.95. Even though I already have ten books on Robert F. Kennedy, I wanted to add these two books because this was the first comprehensively written cradle to grave biography of his life. It was published in 1978, just ten years after his death. It was written by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., a historian who previous wrote a book on President John F. Kennedy's time in the White House called "A Thousand Days" (of which I own both a hardcover and softcover copy), for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for biography. I ended up purchasing these very editions on eBay after a seller offered to sell me these very copies for a lower price. I hope they will be able to fit in my Kennedy bookshelf.

After ordering those two volumes, I cannot order anymore Kennedy books for myself since I have no space. I will only make an exception for Frederic Logevall's second volume for his biography of President John F. Kennedy when it is published in the future. Even though I make no plans to buy more books on the Kennedy Family, I still have a desire to collect more because I want to learn more and to have more material to use if I were to write papers about the Kennedy Family. I should mention that I have no desire to collect books relating to John F. Kennedy’s assassination, except perhaps a hardcover copy (preferably with a dust jacket) of “The Death of a President” by William Manchester.   

I realized my desire to acquire more books on The Kennedys when I went to visit the Harvard Coop on the evening of June 4^th, only thirteen days ago. I went to the biographical section of the bookstore, alphabetized by subject, and noticed these books on the Kennedys.

Upon seeing them, I wanted to purchase them to add them to my collection. My lack of budget and my remembrance of lack of space in my bookshelf prevented me from purchasing them. Nevertheless, if I had the budget and the space, here are the Kennedy books I wish to acquire.

The top published book I wish to acquire is "Against the Wind: Edward Kennedy and the Rise of Conservatism, 1976-2009" by Neal Gabler. I already have his first volume "Catching the Wind: Edward Kennedy and the Liberal Hour, 1932-1975", which I bought in February of 2021. I wanted to add it and put it next to my copy of Mr. Gabler’s previous volume to have a sense of completion to that set. 

The second published book I wish to a acquire is “Ted Kennedy: A Life” by John A. Farrell. This book was released around the same time as Neal Gabler’s second volume. I also want to get this book on Senator Edward M. Kennedy because if I were to write an article or an essay on him and in attempting to show how much of an effective legislator he was, I would want to use more updated information on him.

 

Another book I would like to obtain (which is not a top priority for me) is “Last Lion: The Fall & Rise of Ted Kennedy,” Edited by Peter S. Canellos. I don’t really have any logical reason wanting to have a copy. I know that if I were to obtain one after having received Gabler’s and Farrells works, that would total to ten books I would own on the late Senator from Massachusetts. After acquiring this book (along with Farrell's and Gabler's books), I would feel a sense of completion for owning books on Ted Kennedy.

The third published book I wish to a acquire is “The Ambassador: Joseph P. Kennedy at the Court of St. James’s, 1938–1940,” by Susan Ronald. I am curious to know more about Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.’s time as ambassador to Great Britain on the eve of the second world war. Another reason is because Jean Kennedy Smith, whom I met in 2017, is also featured on the cover of the book along with her siblings and her parents and it’s nice to be reminded that someone I met was a witness to history and also had a front row seat to the events written in the book.

There are so many more books which I would also like to obtain, especially on the Kennedy Family, but to list them all would be a burden to the reader. So, I will share a link to my Amazon Wishlist (Kennedy Edition) if anyone is interested in knowing what books on the Kennedys I would wish to have. If anyone happens to see this Wishlist and if they wish to purchase a book or two to send to me as a gift for whatever reason, I will not refuse and would be eternally grateful.

The five new acquisitions, which I mentioned in earlier paragraphs, are the only books I have purchased on the Kennedys for this year of 2023, which coincidentally commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of President Kennedy’s final year in office. Speaking of which, I also plan to go to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of his death on November 22. In my regard to my Kennedy book collection (to which I have eighty-eight books in total - soon to be ninety), I have no more room to add books due to lack of space on my bookshelf. For now, it must remain as it is until Divine Providence permits me to move to a much better, larger, and comfortable place with more room for my books. Let this be His will. 

With nothing more to add, I think it would be fitting to conclude this entry with a quote. I have chosen a paragraph from President Kennedy's Commencement Address at American University in Washington on June 10, 1963, which took place sixty years and seven days ago: "Let us focus instead on a more practical, more attainable peace-- based not on a sudden revolution in human nature but on a gradual evolution in human institutions--on a series of concrete actions and effective agreements which are in the interest of all concerned. There is no single, simple key to this peace--no grand or magic formula to be adopted by one or two powers. Genuine peace must be the product of many nations, the sum of many acts. It must be dynamic, not static, changing to meet the challenge of each new generation. For peace is a process--a way of solving problems."