John F. Kennedy Inscribed Book

Appraised on: August 21, 2004

Appraised in: Portland, Oregon

Appraised by: Francis Wahlgren

Category: Books & Manuscripts

Episode Info: Portland, Hour 2 (#914)

Originally Aired: April 25, 2005

IMAGE: 1 of 2  

Appraisal Video: (1:49)

GUEST: I brought you a book that Senator John Kennedy wrote, and I took with me to an event that I was volunteering. My friend who'd asked me to volunteer said, "Bring along your book." And I said, "He won't have any time for that." And she said, "Well, we'll see."

APPRAISER: And he did?

GUEST: And she went to talk to him and he said, "Certainly, I'll sign it." And everything stopped, the lights went on, and he signed it.

APPRAISER: "Profiles in Courage" is his great book. It came out in 1956. And in it Kennedy has inscribed, "To Betty, best wishes, John Kennedy." It's difficult to read. Kennedy had very fast handwriting. It's very, very hard to even make it out sometimes. He also was a president that had secretaries sign many things for him. And this was at the time when he would have been running around, very busy. So you're very lucky to have gotten him to do it, because to have an authentic Kennedy signature is a good thing. And when we asked, "Did you see him sign it?" and when you said "yes," we were very, very pleased. And you also brought along a news clipping which shows you here, Betty, and here's Kennedy, a group of people around. Those were all greeting him at the event?

GUEST: Yes. And all volunteers.

APPRAISER: And he was signing things for everybody?

GUEST: No, I was the only one he signed something for.

APPRAISER: Really? Why, nobody else had anything to sign?

GUEST: Nobody brought their book.

APPRAISER: A book like this, inscribed, that we know definitively was signed by Kennedy, would be worth at auction $3,000 to $4,000.

GUEST: Oh, my goodness. I had no idea that much.

APPRAISER: So you did great by bringing it along to him...

GUEST: It was a good thing.

APPRAISER: It was a very good thing. And we're grateful here at the ROADSHOW.