JFK's Ghost

Kennedy, Sorensen and the Making of Profiles in Courage

David R. Stokes

• Publisher: Lyons Press
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9781493061426
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

"I'd rather win a Pulitzer Prize than be President of the United States," John F. Kennedy confided to author Margaret Coit shortly after his election to the Senate in 1953. Kennedy got his wish four years later, when his book Profiles in Courage was awarded the Pulitzer for biography—even though it wasn't among the finalists for the prize. Furthermore, the role of Ted Sorensen in drafting the main chapters in the book was never acknowledged by Kennedy's inner circle, and Kennedy himself was hyper-sensitive until his dying day about rumors that cast doubt on his ownership of Profiles in Courage. Still, Jack Kennedy the writer is part of the Kennedy narrative that helped propel his political career. And he did indeed work for a time as a journalist, and brought a measures of erudition, wit, and charm to his speeches. But if the rumors surrounding authorship of Profiles in Courage were proven to be true prior to his ascendance to the Presidency, there might have been no brief and shining moment in America called Camelot.

Table of contents

• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1: December 7, 1957
• Chapter 2: “A Target on His Back”
• Chapter 3: “The Idea of Courageous Leadership”
• Chapter 4: “One of America’s Great Political Writers”
• Chapter 5: “The Second Son Born to Joe and Rose Kennedy”
• Chapter 6: “The Muckers Club”
• Chapter 7: “The Gathering Storm”
• Chapter 8: “JFK’s Future Ghostwriter”
• Chapter 9: “A Big Churchill Fan”
• Chapter 10: “What’s That Limey Been Telling You?”
• Chapter 11: “How’s Your Book Coming?”
• Chapter 12: “Why England Slept”
• Chapter 13: “Henry Luce”
• Chapter 14: “A Simple Case of Message Meeting Moment”
• Chapter 15: “Jack Earned More than $40,000 in Royalties”
• Chapter 16: “They Thought She Was a Nazi Spy”
• Chapter 17: “The Skipper Hero”
• Chapter 18: “I Always Sensed I Had a Larger Purpose”
• Chapter 19: “Kennedy Will Not Be Filing Tonight”
• Chapter 20: “A Diary He Kept for a Brief Time”
• Chapter 21: “The New Generation Offers a Leader”
• Chapter 22: “John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon”
• Chapter 23: “They Stayed Up Talking throughout the Night”
• Chapter 24: “He Had a Knack for Alienating”
• Chapter 25: “The Political Equivalent of Perfect Pitch in a Crooner”
• Chapter 26: “I Would Rather Win a Pulitzer than Be President”
• Chapter 27: “Enter Ted Sorensen”
• Chapter 28: “Ted Became His Intellectual Blood Bank”
• Chapter 29: “A Kennedy Speech Has to Have Class”
• Chapter 30: “A Rather Helter-Skelter Relationship”
• Chapter 31: “A Quality Book”
• Chapter 32: “The House of Harper”
• Chapter 33: “It Was All Very Collaborative”
• Chapter 34: “Our Monumental Work”
• Chapter 35: “The Professor”
• Chapter 36: “Davids Was Paid a Mere $700”
• Chapter 37: “Some Political Scientists and Historians”
• Chapter 38: “I Should Be Glad to Take a Look at Your Book”
• Chapter 39: “With Something Close to Fascination”
• Chapter 40: “Evan Welling Thomas II”
• Chapter 41: “Your Father Is a Controversial Man”
• Chapter 42: “The Lost Introduction”
• Chapter 43: “Sorensen Was a One-Man Promotion Machine”
• Chapter 44: “With a Little Help from His Father”
• Chapter 45: “Jack Kennedy Called Evan Thomas on Christmas Eve”
• Chapter 46: “The Book Was Quickly Captivating America”
• Chapter 47: “The Book Has Taken Off Like a Bird”
• Chapter 48: “The Star of the Night”
• Chapter 49: “It Was the Perfect Trial Run”
• Chapter 50: “Pulitzer Prize”
• Chapter 51: “I Worked as Hard as I Could to Get Him That Prize”
• Chapter 52: “It Was All a Matter of Money”
• Chapter 53: “Joe Kennedy Made a Deal with Jack’s Ghostwriter”
• Chapter 54: “Less Profile and More Courage”
• Chapter 55: “Perhaps Sorensen Made the Statement When Drinking”
• Chapter 56: “The Rumors Still Persist”
• Chapter 57: “It’s Sort of Sad”
• Chapter 58: “The Prize Was the Problem”
• Epilogue
• Author’s Note
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author