Incomparable Grace

I

The Torch

The Kennedys leave their Georgetown apartment on the morning of JFK's inauguration, January 20, 1961.

Jacques Lowe, Jacques Lowe Photographic Archive, Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin

Transition

The snow came fast and thick. On the morning of Thursday, January 19, 1961, storm clouds blew up from North Carolina and Virginia in icy gusts, paralyzing the mid-Atlantic states, which saw as much as twenty-nine inches of precipitation as the mercury dived into the low twenties, and then the teens. By day's end, eight inches of snow would blanket Washington, D.C., as the city prepared for the peaceful transfer of power.

Two hours before the snow began to fall, John Kennedy met in the Oval Office with President Dwight Eisenhower, the seventy-year-old incumbent, who would pass on the burden of the office to Kennedy the following day at noon. Even beyond their twenty-seven-year age difference-the greatest America has seen between an incoming and outgoing president-the contrast between them was stark: Kennedy was the tousle-haired picture of young-man-in-a-hurry vitality and ambition, bronzed from a recent stay at his father's Palm Beach estate; Eisenhower was the Kansas farm boy turned stalwart hero of D-Day-pallid, bald, and aged-who wore the mantle of power with reflexive ease. Before repairing to the West Wing, the two men had greeted each other warmly before a gaggle of eager press photographers at the White House's North Portico, flashing the famous smiles that had lit up thousands of campaign posters through the years. All was cordial as they met, belying an undercurrent of tension between them. Among their respective aides, Eisenhower derided Kennedy as "Little Boy Blue," while Kennedy called Eisenhower "that old asshole," a military term reserved by junior officers for the top brass, and, later, "a cold bastard."

This was their second transition meeting. The first, in early December, a discussion

Mark K. Updegrove is a presidential historian and the author of five books on the presidency. He currently serves as the President and CEO of the Lyndon B. Johnson Foundation and the Presidential Historian for ABC News. Earlier in his career, he was the director of the LBJ Presidential Library and publisher of Newsweek. He has interviewed seven U.S. presidents. His latest book, Incomparable Grace: JFK in the Presidency, will be published by Dutton in April 2022.

Absorbing Updegrove provides a balanced look at Kennedy's personal and political failings while offering a look at why a man who served just 1,036 days in office continues to rank so high by historians among the nation's presidents. Associated Press

Updegrove limns Kennedy s ascent from overshadowed, somewhat sickly second son to war hero... Updegrove doesn t lose his way in excessive detail, penning a biography that brings JFK into living perspective for a younger generation who might know him only from their parents tales. Booklist (starred review)

Updegrove s skillful portrait reveals a president who learned on the job and did so with humility, calling forth the best in all of us, which helps account for the widely shared enshrinement of Kennedy s memory today A well-rendered portrait showing that presidential politics can be both effective and a force for the good. Kirkus

The fast-paced narrative smoothly transitions from one high-stakes matter to the next and reveals just how eventful the abbreviated Kennedy presidency was . a brisk and entertaining biography. Publishers Weekly

In this tremendously absorbing and inviting portrait, Mark Updegrove delivers a warm, yet unflinching examination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. His deep knowledge of the presidency allows him to convey the political complexity of the issues without ever losing the narrative flow. This is an important book that captures the energy, hope and vision of a young president navigating a potential nuclear confrontation, a gathering storm in Vietnam, and the struggle for justice at home. Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Leadership: In Turbulent Times

We are lucky that Mark Updegrove has brought us this elegant, concise, knowing, fluent and highly-readable look at John F. Kennedy as president. In these troubled times, JFK s leadership looks better and better in the rearview mirror, and Updegrove here deploys his wise