John F. Kennedy Autograph Letter Signed "Jack K." One and one-quarter page, 7" x 10.5", [Palo Alto, California], ca....

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John F. Kennedy Autograph Letter Signed "Jack K." One and one-quarter page, 7" x 10.5", [Palo Alto, California], ca. 1940 on letterhead reading in cardinal red, "Leland Stanford Junior University." The twenty-three-year-old future president writes to "Mr. Goldsmith."

"Thank you very much for sending me the issue of the Foreign Policy Bulletin. I appreciate your interest very much. Hope to see you down South this winter as I expect to get back for Christmas."

Earlier in 1940, the young Kennedy had published his senior Harvard theses Why England Slept, which became a bestseller, and graduated cum laude from Harvard in 1940 with a degree in international affairs. Not certain about what to do next, the he enrolled at the politically conservative Stanford Graduate School of Business in the fall of 1940, where he liked to drive around campus in his new green Buick convertible that he'd bought with part of the proceeds from his bestseller. Though he enjoyed his life there, he didn't stay long. In May 1941, he left campus to tour several South American countries and then joined the U.S. Navy. He was sent on his first assignment to Washington, D.C., in October. The paper is toned with smoothed folds. One small chip is missing from the upper left corner.