Some Elements of the American Character. An Oration Delivered at Faneuil Hall, July 4, 1946

Pensacola FL: King & Queen Press, 1976. Paperback. First separate publication. Unpaginated preliminary Preface, 17p., letterpress on laidlined paperstock with rubricated titlepage, a softbound pamphlet in 6.5x5 inch dark blue wraps with printed paper label (also rubricated). Fine-presswork on the cheap; not sewn but glued to wrapper, first half adhered to front cover verso, other to back cover, with a break at pp.4/5 due to this time-saving technique, nonetheless quite attractive. A fine undamaged unmarked copy, one of a run limited to 350 copies; a merely ephemeral piece, but quite early for a JFK collectable, only Why England Slept and As We Remember Joe (1945) precede it. K & Q Press was founded in 1962 by James A. Servies (1925-2014) and wife Lana D., who survives him. The occasion for this speech is obscure, reprinter/editors say "very little attention was given to [it] by Boston newspapers of the day" and that "no mention of the speech can be found in any of the numerous books about JFK." Well, after all-- it is a stunningly lame effort! filled with patriotic boilerplate; better forgotten. Nor was John yet running for office. He had the year before undertaken a memorial volume, "As We Remember Joe," a plausibly exhausting ordeal, he was presumably still recuperating from his PT 109 shipwreck and swim, and had numerous back operations to look forward to.