A glimpse into the universe of one of the world’s unforgettable men

WHERE A 1,000-page biography fails to tell about the authorman, a one page epistle tells all. It is a mirror to his mind and a string that plays the harp of his heart. Take for instance the famous epistolary collection Letters from a Father to His Daughter—a compilation of 30 letters written by the first prime minister of India to his 10-year-old daughter Indira. It is replete with wisdom and the loving perspective of a father on how he wants his daughter to grow up knowing the good from the bad. They are not just random lessons in natural history and the story of civilisation but a window to Jawaharlal Nehru, the man, the father and the statesman.

Kennedy’s correspondence that runs into more than two million letters and is archived in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum is similarly a mirror to the man extraordinaire. The book The Letter of John F Kennedy, is based on the premise that one can discover much more about Kennedy the man and Kennedy the President and the extraordinary times in which he lived by shifting through this selected sheaf of correspondence.

Charismatic Kennedy’s claim to fame did not just rest on his good looks and charms. He was eloquent in speech and well read and a great writer as prove the letters and his books. His speed of reading was an amazing more than 1,200 words per minute and his undergraduate thesis at Harvard became a bestselling book and earned him a Pulitzer Prize. His statesmanship was undisputable and his unwavering sense of duty unparalleled. All these qualities of Kennedy shine forth through the variety of correspondence that dotted his short 1,000 days in office. Of special mention is his long and secret ‘penpalship’ with Soviet chairman Nikita Krushchev. It provides an insight into how two diametrically opposite leaders managed to steer the world away from an imminent nuclear volcano. Chapter 4 titled World in Crisis provides captures the turbulent world of political upheavals at the time. That JFK was able to avert this tinderbox situation pursuing what he called “strategy of peace” through a dialogue on achieving nuclear disarmament with the Soviet premier, is a lesson in true statesmanship. But this is just a part of his multifaceted persona.

Read the book to discover the magnetic personality of JFK through his thoughtfully crafted correspondence. In this age of SMS and email, his letters are an iconic piece of intensely personal writing, an art that is perhaps lost to us forever.