by Geoffrey Perret C 2001
Randon House New York
In this book by Perret, we learn that the youthful J.F.K. was an avid reader, and that he did deserve the Pulitzer for his book "Profiles in Courage" which was criticized as ghost written.
page 32-33 covering his studenthood at the prep school Choat:
Jack's half of the room in Choate House, the one that he shared with young Godfrey Kauffmann, was a clue that no teacher could miss. Yet nearly every faculty member who had to deal with him, from the headmaster down, was convinced that young Jack Kennedy was not using the brains God gave him. It was their responsibility to cram enough self discipline into the bout o get him into an Ivy League college, but it seemed a thankless uphill struggle.
The clue they slighted was that Jack had tuned his half of the room into a shrine to the word. There were piles of books everywhere - on the floor, on the chairs, on the bed, on the dresser. And whether at school or at home, he invariably seemed to have a book in his hands.....
"I guess I read a lot," Jack replied, neither boasting nor being unduly modest. And as he explained to Horton, he did not simply read widely. He tried to memorize what he read, argued with it, summarized the writer's argument and filed the summaries away in his mind."
