Grouping of three typed letters from Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy or from his press secretary Robert Thompson, all unsigned, dated between September and December 1958. The Kennedy letter, one page, September 27, 1958, addressed to Dr. Charles Salemi, Grand Venerable of the Independent Order of the Sons of Italy, in full: “I want to congratulate you and all those who served with you in the Independent Order of the Sons of Italy upon your 50th Anniversary. All Massachusetts must share pride in this milestone and in your successful efforts over the past 50 years to establish better understanding among all Americans. I know that even greater achievements lie ahead as the Independent Order of the Sons of Italy begins its fifty-first year in Massachusetts.” Highlights of the Thompson letters: October 6th, sent to a journalist at the Parkersburg Sentinel, “Enclosed herewith is a print of a photo of Senator Kennedy, his wife and his daughter”; and December 2, sent to Joseph E. Manion, “I would appreciate your holding for a short while the campaign material enumerated in your letter. The new Senate office building is not opening until sometime in February, and we are horribly cramped for space at this point. Once the new building is open, Senator Kennedy will have considerable additional office space, and we then can file the material. The books you gave me — the copies of ‘Profiles’ — were stolen on election night, but we have replacements for them and will see that they are autographed.” The reverse of Thompson’s October letter bears a stapled note sheet with secretarial notations. In overall very good to fine condition, with some wrinkling to onetime moisture exposure. Accompanied by a TLS from Satrya P. Bennett, the treasurer of the St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church, sent to Kennedy on September 11, 1958, noting that they would “appreciate a word of greeting...to appear on our Souvenir Program,” in honor of the church’s 85th anniversary.
From the personal collection of Robert E. Thompson (1921-2003), a top political writer and Washington journalist who worked as John F. Kennedy's press secretary in the late 1950s, quitting just prior to the then-Senator's presidential campaign. The men met through Robert F. Kennedy, who had befriended Thompson during the McClellan Committee hearings into labor racketeering. It was at a party in 1958 at RFK’s Hickory Hill estate that JFK asked Thompson to become his press secretary. One of Thompson’s major contributions to his new boss’s 1958 senatorial reelection campaign was a movie he put together entitled ‘The U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy Story,’ which was broadcast on Massachusetts television. Kennedy later remarked that ‘it was the best thing (he) had in the campaign.’ Thompson left Kennedy’s staff in 1959 and joined the Washington Bureau of the New York Daily News, where he eventually became their White House correspondent and was assigned to cover the new American President: John F. Kennedy.
