Description: Kennedy John

Kennedy Signed Why England Slept, JFK's First Book!

Wilfred Funk, Inc, New York, 1940. 252 pp. 8vo. First edition, Second printing. JFK's First Book. John F. Kennedy signed and inscribed to actor Eddie Dunn on the front fly leaf: "To Eddie Dunn, with warmest regards / Jack Kennedy". Red cloth boards still maintaining their original sheen with unfaded spine titles. Sharp corners with no edgewear, and a tight, square binding. End papers are stained and grubby, but with a large pronounced inscription and signature. The internal pages are overall clean with some light damp bleed through of the original blue top stain on the outer page block. In a very good dust jacket with a large chip on the bottom of the spine. Not price clipped, with the inner front flap having the price of $2.00.

Published the year Kennedy graduated from Harvard, Why England Slept was an expansion of his senior thesis and was a response to Churchill's While England Slept (published about two years before Kennedy's). Kennedy dedicated the book to his parents, Rose and Joe Kennedy. In this work he attempts to explain why England was so poorly prepared for World War II and why England's leaders settled upon the disastrous policies of appeasement. The book served as a warning to those in our country who felt that appeasing Hitler and staying out of the war was a viable option.

An incredibly rare and important book. Of the very few signed copies of any edition that exist of this book, several first editions are listed online by book dealers for as much as $50,000, the lowest one we can find is offered at $15,000.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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