The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers

Eleanor Roosevelt to John F. Kennedy

January 29 1959

(Image of this telegram)

Honorable John F. Kennedy
Senate Office Building
Washington DC

My dear boy I only say these things for your own good I have found in lifetime of adversity that when blows are rained on one, it is advisable to turn the other profile.1

Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt
Cable, POF, MBJFK

     1. In 1955, John F. Kennedy, with extensive assistance from his aide Theodore Sorensen, wrote Profiles in Courage, a collection of biographical essays detailing the lives of eight members of the United States Senate (John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, Thomas Hart Benton, Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar, Sam Houston, Edmund G. Ross, and Robert A. Taft) who displayed conscience, integrity, and courage in the face of widespread political opposition and popular scorn. JFK, who was halfway through his first term in the Senate, hoped that "a book about the most admirable of human virtues--courage" would not only introduce readers to political icons but also boost his chance for the 1956 vice presidential nomination. The book became an immediate bestseller and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1957. ER's advice is heavy with irony because she is subtly using the title of his book to indicate that, in her opinion, he lacks courage. As she often told audiences around the country, "I feel that I would hesitate to place the difficult decisions that the next President will have to make with someone who understands what courage is and admires it but had not quite the independence to practice it." [John F. Kennedy, Profiles in Courage (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1955), passim; Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965), p. 14.]

Index to this Document: Adams, John Quincy: Profiles in Courage and; Benton, Thomas Hart: Houston, Sam: Kennedy, John F.: ER criticized by; Lamar, Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus: Profiles in Courage and; Profiles in Courage: John Quincy Adams and; Thomas Hart Benton and; definition of; Sam Houston and; Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar and; Edmund G. Ross and; ER's reference to; Theodore C. Sorensen and; Robert A. Taft and; Daniel Webster and; Roosevelt, Eleanor: JFK, criticism of; political advice of; Ross, Edmund G.: Profiles in Courage and; Sorensen, Theodore C. ("Ted"): Proflies in Courage and; Taft, Robert A.: Profiles in Courage and; Webster, Daniel:

Published by the Model Editions Partnership

Recommended citation: Eleanor Roosevelt, John Kennedy, and the Election of 1960: A Project of The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, ed. by Allida Black, June Hopkins, John Sears, Christopher Alhambra, Mary Jo Binker, Christopher Brick, John S. Emrich, Eugenia Gusev, Kristen E. Gwinn, and Bryan D. Peery (Columbia, S.C.: Model Editions Partnership, 2003). Electronic version based on unpublished letters. .

For more information, visit The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers home page at https://erpapers.columbian.gwu.edu/.

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