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John F. Kennedy Autograph Letter Signed

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:12,000.00 - 15,000.00 USD
John F. Kennedy Autograph Letter Signed

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Auction Date:2018 Nov 07 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Rare World War II-dated ALS signed “Love, Jack,” on both sides of a folded 3.5 x 2.5 note card, no date but postmarked February 17, 1945. A flirtatious letter to Elinor Mae Dooley, a nurse Kennedy had met at the Naval Hospital in Chelsea, Mass., in 1944, while recuperating from back surgery following his heroic efforts aboard PT-109, in full: "I've been waiting to hear from you for some time and your valentine (for which I thank you) let me know that you were still with us and not defending your country's honor and your own—in the Philippines or some place like it. I still have great hopes that you will be coming out this way. If you do—please—I say again, please—let me know where you are going—for if it is near—I will come on the double. Try and take any leave you get on this end—as it is wonderful country and you would love it. Wonderful air—riding etc. and I think I'm getting in better shape—though it goes surprisingly slow. I am really living like the doctor ordered—and finding it a bit of a strain. Relax and write. I use this card as I thought the cactus expresses well my social life here." In fine condition. Accompanied a full letter of authenticity from PSA/DNA, the original mailing envelope addressed entirely in Kennedy's hand, and a vintage semi-glossy 3.5 x 5.75 cardstock photo of Kennedy relaxing in his military uniform, with reverse caption reading: "A charming informal photo of Lt. John F. Kennedy contemplating a 30-day leave from his PT torpedo boat duty in the South Pacific during World War II."

In the early morning of August 2, 1943, Lieutenant Kennedy’s PT-109 was struck by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri in the Blackett Strait of the Solomon Islands. Following a miraculous 3.5-mile swim to shore, Kennedy and his ten surviving crew members were rescued from Olasana Island a full six days later. Kennedy returned to the United States in January 1944, and after a three-month period at Miami’s Submarine Chaser Training Center, he entered the Naval Hospital in Chelsea, Massachusetts, to receive treatment for a debilitating lower back condition. Kennedy subsequently traveled to Arizona to further convalesce at Castle Hot Sprints (where he wrote this letter from), a resort used by the United States military as rehabilitation center from 1943 to 1944 to treat injured veterans. On March 1, 1945, Kennedy retired from the Navy Reserve on physical disability, earning an honorable discharge with the full rank of lieutenant. Two months later, Jack began work as a special correspondent for William Randolph Hearst’s Chicago Herald Examiner.

War-dated letters from Kennedy remain exceedingly rare, with this example all the more desirable given its flirty tone. He expresses his discontent with his social life: like a prickly cactus in a barren desert, yet—perhaps with the help of a kind nurse or two—ready to blossom. One can only imagine what it must have been like for the recipient of this charming note, Elinor Mae Dooley, to later watch JFK's meteoric ascension to the US Senate, presidency, and ultimately his assassination in Dallas on November 22.