An attempt to answer who he was through the eyes of his biographers...

He was a poet himself.  He understood words.  He said what he wanted to say.

He edits Schlesinger's lines for the Amherst speech.  He gets the town of Amherst just right, a similar business to his own, a deeper understanding of issues, a wit, a gift for words.  Power leads toward arrogance, poetry cleanses.

Amherst College President Calvin Plimpton's remarks the night of November 22 that year, three weeks after JFK had come speak of the leanness of personality, the seriousness, and also the wit.

One cannot be surprised the biographers have problems with assessing him, nailing him down, covering him rightly.  He was a reader, a writer, a student himself, always engaged, learning, responding.  Apparently he enjoyed public speaking with some relish.

And all the pundits of today, all the attempts, but the most graceful and circumspect, will of course fall short by the pits of their own egos.

Kennedy, the Elusive President

By JILL ABRAMSON

Published: October 22, 2013