Kennedy By Lord Longford
Kennedy (First Edition Hardcover Copy)
A Sympathetic and Conscientious Portrait of Modern America's Most Charismatic President
A Sympathetic and Conscientious Portrait of Modern America's Most Charismatic President
Bibliographic Specifications
- Title: Kennedy
- Author: Lord Longford (Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford)
- Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London
- Publication Date: 1976
- ISBN-10: 0297772449
- ISBN-13: 9780297772446
- Edition Details: First UK Edition, First Printing. Standard hardcover release with original unclipped dust jacket.
- Binding: Original publisher's premium cloth boards with crisp gold/silver gilt-stamped lettering across the spine, complete with structurally sound endpapers.
- Physical Format: Octavo (8vo), 223 pages. Enhanced with a dedicated section of historical black-and-white archival photographic plates tracking JFK's career, international summits, and private life.
- Language: English
Official Condition Report
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The Book: Very Good Plus (VG+)
- Exterior / Cloth Boards: The cloth casing remains in exceptional condition, sitting flat, square, and structurally sound. The corners show only microscopic storage friction, and the spine ends are crisp. The spine itself remains completely unbroken and undamaged, retaining its original rigidity.
- Interior: The text block is robustly bound, perfectly clean, and tight. The internal pages and photographic reference plates are clean, crisp, and intact. Entirely free of standard user highlighting, ink underlining, dealer pencil marks, or dog-ears.
- Provenance: An exemplary, well-maintained collectible copy showing no evidence of remainder marks, institutional library stamps, or previous owner nameplates.
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The Dust Jacket: Very Good Plus (VG+)
- Condition Details: The original vintage 1976 dust jacket exhibits excellent color contrast and strong paper structural integrity. It shows very limited, superficial signs of handling and slight edge wear along the outer extremities. It features no significant tears, fading, or open chips, and comes protected in a clear, archival Cellophane cover.
Synopsis & Historical Value
Published in 1976, Kennedy by Lord Longford offers a deeply thoughtful, balanced, and sympathetic portrait of John F. Kennedy, the young, inexperienced president who searched for new answers to the world's perennial problems. Writing from a unique British political perspective, Lord Longford does not gloss over the errors of the administration. On the contrary, he conscientiously details the series of impetuous decisions which led to the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion, and directly analyzes what must be called serious defects in Kennedy's character. Yet, the biography masterfully balances these flaws against JFK's profound rhetorical power, his growth during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the enduring sense of optimism he brought to international diplomacy. It stands as a vital mid-1970s reassessment of the Kennedy legacy before the era of hyper-sensationalist exposé literature.
Author Profile: Lord Longford
Lord Longford (Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford, 1905–2001) was a highly distinguished British politician, author, and social reformer. Educated at New College, Oxford, he served as a minister in various post-war Labour cabinets and was a prominent member of the House of Lords for over fifty years. A prolific writer, his biographical works—including his acclaimed studies of Eamon de Valera and Richard Nixon—are widely praised by historians for their deep ethical foundation, narrative speed, and sophisticated psychological insight into the burdens of global leadership.
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