He read in the bathtub and while driving: how books shaped John F. Kennedy

Jacqueline Kennedy said her husband read in the strangest ways: walking, at the table, after dinner, in the bathtub, even, practically, while driving a car. He read in the times when most people think they have no time. This National Park Service article traces that habit from a nursery in Brookline, Massachusetts, to the White House.

John F. Kennedy at a typewriter with his book Why England Slept. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

A child with books

Kennedy's mother, Rose Kennedy, expected all her children to read from a list of recommended books that she curated. She later noted that he was the only one who read every book on it. She also believed his health struggles were what pushed him to read. He suffered ailments and illnesses throughout his life, primarily from what was later diagnosed as Addison's disease, which affects the adrenal glands, weakening the immune system. Books were an escape from the bed where he was so often confined as a child. Two favorites, Billy Whiskers Kids (about an adventurous, mischievous goat) and King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table, are among the books chosen for the nursery when the birthplace home was recreated.

Two of his favorite books on a chair in the nursery at the JFK Birthplace, Brookline, Massachusetts. John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site.

Why England Slept

In the summer of 1937, after his first year at Harvard, Kennedy toured Europe with his best friend, Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings, visiting France, the Netherlands, Italy and Germany and asking people what they thought about the pressing issues of the day. When his father, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., was Ambassador to Great Britain from 1938 to 1940, Kennedy returned to Europe, and through his father's connections met European leaders. He researched topics from every angle before forming an opinion.

His 1940 senior thesis at Harvard took up the war he had been grappling with. In it he explained why he believed Britain had been so slow to build its defenses, a hesitation that left it vulnerable to Germany's growing power, and he saw it as a cautionary tale for the United States. Drawn to the idea of being an author, he published it later that year as Why England Slept, and it became a bestseller.

Kennedy signs a copy of Why England Slept for the actor Spencer Tracy. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

Profiles in Courage

Even in politics his curiosity kept pushing him to gather information. From 1954 through 1955 he took a speed reading course and by its end could read 1,200 words per minute. While recovering from two back surgeries in 1954, the then senator reflected on what made a remarkable politician and, inspired by his political heroes, began a second book. With help from his wife and from his Senate aide and research associate Ted Sorensen, he wrote about eight U.S. senators who took principled stands despite great political and personal risks. Profiles in Courage was published in 1955 and won the Pulitzer Prize in biography in 1957.

Paperback edition of Profiles in Courage. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

The presidency and the arts

At his January 1961 inauguration, Kennedy became the first president to have a poet take part, according to the article, when he invited Robert Frost. Frost had meant to recite "Dedication," which he wrote for the occasion, but the glare and his failing eyesight forced him to drop it, and he recited from memory "The Gift Outright," a poem he had published before.

President Kennedy presents a Congressional Gold Medal to the poet Robert Frost, March 26, 1962. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

Frost was honored again in 1962 with the Congressional Gold Medal. By the time of Kennedy's death in November 1963 he had published several articles and written three books. The third, A Nation of Immigrants, began as a shorter work during his time as a senator, to combat rising xenophobia, and was published after his death, in 1964. The Profile in Courage Award, named for the 1955 book, recognizes people who act on conscience for a larger vision regardless of personal cost, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., carries on his legacy with performances from around the world and education and outreach on the arts.

Sources

• National Park Service, John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site, "John F. Kennedy: The Power of the Written Word", https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/jfk-love-of-literature.htm; pictures from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum and the National Historic Site; rewritten in hubnx's own words.