INSCRIBED BY RFK TO DAVID ORMSBY-GORE, KENNEDY FAMILY INTIMATE AND AMBASSADOR FROM GREAT BRITAIN

KENNEDY, Robert. The Enemy Within. New York: Harper & Brothers, (1960). Octavo, original olive cloth, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $4500.

First edition, early printing of Robert Kennedy's account of his battle to rid the American labor movement of corruption, inscribed by him to David Ormsby-Gore, a long-standing Kennedy family intimate friend and Ambassador to the United States from Great Britain during the Kennedy administration: "For David Ormsby-Gore with warmest regards from his friend Bob Kennedy."

In 1957, Kennedy "was named chief counsel of what became known as the Rackets Committee and made a name for himself by uncovering corrupt practices in the Teamsters' Union. In 1959 Kennedy left the committee to write The Enemy Within on his investigation" (ANB). "The point I want to make is this," Kennedy declares: "If we do not on a national scale attack organized criminals with weapons and techniques as effective as their own, they will destroy us" (page 265). Featuring foreword by Arthur Krock and eight pages of black-and-white photographs. Early printing, without first edition statement on copyright page and publisher's code "G-K" indicating a July 1960 publication date (the first printing was in January 1960). This copy is inscribed to David Ormsby-Gore, Lord Harlech and Ambassador from Great Britain to the United States during the Kennedy administration. Ormsby-Gore was a Kennedy family intimate and personal friend of JFK of long standing, beginning when Kennedy's father was Ambassador to the Court of St. James. Ormsby-Gore's appointment as Ambassador to the United States from Great Britain was done at Kennedy's request; Ormsby-Gore and his wife Sissie were some of John and Jackie's closest friends and confidants during the White House years, both being constant visitors at the White House, more regarded as friends than anything else. He was also central to much of the international politics of the Kennedy Era, and played a vital role in defusing the Cuban Missile Crisis. The relationship between Kennedy and Ormsby-Gore was exceptionally close; according to a biographer of Jacqueline Kennedy, after JFK's assassination Jackie felt that "of all the people who had been close to Jack, David had been, next to Bobby and herself, the one who had been 'the most wounded' by his death" (Leaming, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, 154).

Cloth with toning to spine head; dust jacket with a few tears to extremities, creasing to spine ends. An extremely good copy with excellent provenance.