JFK

By Norman Mailer

Subjects: Biography, Presidents, Politics and government, Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963, Election, Kennedy, john f. (john fitzgerald), 1917-1963, United States -- Politics and government -- 1961-1963, Presidents, united states, election, 1960, Presidents -- United States -- Biography, Presidents -- United States -- Election -- 1960, Political campaigns

Description: With his Hollywood good looks, boundless enthusiasm, and mesmeric media presence, John F. Kennedy was destined to capture the imaginations of over 70 million Americans who watched the nation s first televised presidential debate. Just days after winning the election by the narrowest margin in history, Kennedy himself said, It was the TV more than anything else that turned the tide. But one man begged to differ: writer Norman Mailer, who bragged that his pro-Kennedy treatise, Superman Comes to the Supermarket, had won the election for Kennedy. Whether or not that was the case, the article, published in Esquire magazine just weeks before polls opened, did redefine political reporting and journalism itself, spawning a form that would be called New Journalism. Mailer's frank, first-person, irreverent voice reflected on Kennedy's cult of personality, calling him the existential hero who could awaken the nation from its postwar slumber and staunchly conformist Eisenhower years.