FIRST EDITION OF PROFILES IN COURAGE, INSCRIBED BY JOHN F. KENNEDY

KENNEDY, John F. Profiles in Courage. New York: Harper & Brothers, (1956). Octavo, original half black cloth boards, dust jacket supplied from another first edition copy. $25,000.

First edition, first printing, of Kennedy's Pulitzer-winning examination of "that most admirable of human virtues," inscribed on the title page by Kennedy to a fellow U.S. senator: "To Norris Cotton with highest regards, John Kennedy."

"A series of sketches of American politicians who risked their careers in the cause of principle… 'A man does what he must,' Kennedy wrote, '—in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures—and that is the basis of all human morality'… The book was popular history of high order, and it received the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1957" (DAB 7: 420). First printing, with "First Edition" and publisher's code "M-E" (December 1955) on copyright page. Without the blank front endpapers; the half title has been turned into the front pastedown, likely at an early date. Norris Cotton (1900-1989) was a lawyer and politician who liked to describe himself as a "rock-ribbed conservative Republican" and was close personal friends with President Nixon; as a U.S. senator for his native New Hampshire, he voted in favor of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968. Records at the JFK Library note that Cotton was present at the first reception President Kennedy held at the White House.

Book and dust jacket with light edge wear; jacket price-clipped and slightly toned, with small spot of light staining to front panel and one short closed edge tear to back panel. An extremely good signed copy.