EPIGRAPH

I have a rendezvous with Death . . . And to my pledged word am true, I shall not fail that rendezvous.

—ALAN SEEGER, HARVARD GRADUATE, AMERICAN WORLD WAR I POET KILLED AT THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME ON JULY 4, 1916, AND AUTHOR OF ONE OF JOHN F. KENNEDY’S FAVORITE POEMS.

We are all mortal.

—JOHN F. KENNEDY, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY, JUNE 10, 1963.

If somebody wants to shoot me from a window with a rifle, nobody can stop it, so why worry about it?

—JOHN F. KENNEDY, FORT WORTH, TEXAS, ON THE MORNING OF NOVEMBER 22, 1963.

I should have known that he was magic all along. I did know—but I should have guessed that it would be too much to ask to grow old with [him] and see our children grow up together. So now, he is a legend when he would have preferred to be a man.

—JACQUELINE KENNEDY, NOVEMBER 17, 1964.