Inscribed by the President’s former Special Assistant - and with an excellent letter written from the White House in September 1962 thanking friends in Houston where Kennedy had just given his speech declaring ‘we choose to go to the moon’.
6th printing of this memoir of the Kennedy years, warmly inscribed by Powers on the half title ‘To Claud and Libby [Hooton] Who went all the way with J.F.K. My very best wishes always Dave Powers’. (The recipient Claude Hooton had close ties to the Kennedy family, serving as a chairman for the "Citizens for Kennedy" in Kennedy’s Presidential Campaign staff in 1960 and becoming a close friend of Ted Kennedy.) Powers’ letter of September 26, 1962 is typed on White House headed paper with a White House envelope, describing how ‘Our President is setting such a terrific pace that all members of the Staff are working day and night just trying to keep abreast of him. J.F.K. is literally a man without a moment to spare as he struggles with one crisis after another.’ Powers goes on to thank Hooton for helping to look after Kennedy just 2 weeks earlier: ‘Our stay in Houston was most enjoyable. Terrific showers, great food, etc.’ Signed ‘Dave’. A second letter from Powers dates from 1975 accompanied the gift of the book to Hooton in which Powers describes himself as ‘still buried in Kennedy memorabilia... He was the greatest man I ever met, the best friend I ever had.’ A handwritten postscript states of Hooton that ‘You are my type [of] Texan’ - Powers was at this time the first curator of the Kennedy Presidential Library.
An excellent Kennedy association copy. After helping to get JFK elected Hooton went on to be both groomsman and pallbearer for Senator Edward M. Kennedy, was part of a Papal Audience with Pope Paul VI in the Pope's private office at Vatican City (that included Astronaut James Lovell), selected as "Man of the Year" for the City of Hope and even ran for the U.S. congressional seat for the 22nd District of Texas. His effects have recently been dispersed at auction in the UK.
