Ambassador’s Journal: A Personal Account of the Kennedy Years.

First Edition of John Kenneth Galbraith's Ambassador's Journal: A Personal Account of the Kennedy Years; inscribed by him to close friend Elaine Steinbeck

Ambassador’s Journal: A Personal Account of the Kennedy Years.

GALBRAITH, John Kenneth [John Steinbeck].

Item Number: 125017

Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1969.

First edition of Galbraith’s personal account of his tenure as the 7th United States Ambassador to India. Octavo, original cloth, illustrated. Association copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper in the year of publication, “For Elaine Steinbeck with much love from John Galbraith – 1969.” The recipient, Elaine Steinbeck and her husband, great American writer John Steinbeck first met Galbraith in the early 1950s while on a holiday on St. John in the Virgin Islands and he and John would exchange letters for years following this initial meeting. Although known for being an economist, Galbraith had a background in agriculture, majoring in animal husbandry and received his Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in agricultural economics from the University of California, Berkeley, so he was well acquainted with the issues that were brought to light in Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath. He and Steinbeck were both passionate about politics and worked together on Adlai Stevenson’s presidential campaign. The Steinbecks attended JFK’s inauguration with the Galbraiths, and their discussions regarding JFK’s inauguration speech were recorded on video as part of Robert Drew’s documentary for ABC Close-up show called “Adventures on the New Frontier.” Galbraith’s works influenced many of Steinbeck’s later books, including Travels with Charley, America and Americans, and The Winter of our Discontent. From the library of John and Elaine Steinbeck. Very good in a very good dust jacket.

A few days after the election in 1960, President Kennedy called Mr. Galbraith to tell him he was to be his Ambassador to India. As he tells here, Mr. Galbraith decided that it would be an interesting time and resolved to keep a journal. So he did and this is it. Never before has there been such an expert account of exactly what an American ambassador does. The work remains one of the most readable and, by all odds, relaxed books on the Kennedy years.

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