8vo, original quarter cloth; dust jacket (some chipping and wear, a few closed tears, a bit soiled and wrinkled); slipcase. Provenance: Frances L. Childers [later Hewitt] (1931-2003), speechwriter, public affairs advisor and theatre producer (presentation inscription).

 

Inaugural Edition, PRESENTATION COPY, inscribed by Kennedy on the front free endpaper: “For Frankie Childers / with very warm / regards - / Jack Kennedy”. 

 

Frances (“Frankie”) Childers began her career on Capitol Hill in 1958 when she left California, moved to Washington and took positions as a speechwriter and legislative liaison specialist. She went on to become a Senate subcommittee staff director, the first woman to run an investigating committee and the first non-lawyer to lead a judiciary committee. Mrs. Hewitt later moved to New York City, when the newly elected President John F. Kennedy appointed her public affairs advisor under Ambassador Adlai Stevenson at the United States Mission to the United Nations. She was also a theater producer and founder of the Ford’s Theater Society, responsible for restoring and reopening the historic site as a working theater. For some years she was married to “60 Minutes” producer Don Hewitt, who was well acquainted with John F. Kennedy, both as candidate and as President.