Kennedy was praised by the literary community as well. Novelist Carson McCullers wrote to the White House, saying, “I think that I have never been moved by words more than I was by your inaugural address.” Writer Eudora Welty wrote that after hearing the speech, she had felt “a surge of hope about life in general.” John Steinbeck observed that Kennedy’s words were “nobly conceived and excellently written and delivered.”Others dedicating their lives to Kennedy’s New Frontier program included researchers and inventors who created exciting new innovations in science and technology.
Rosemary Dew, one of the first female FBI Special Agents, opened her memoir by recounting how she was “inspired by John F. Kennedy and hoped to make a difference in the world. Kennedy’s challenge—’Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country’—affected me deeply . . . I wanted to serve my country.” Clearly, the “new generation” connected to the young president’s words and seemed to welcome the challenge to “light the world” with the fire of American principles and ideals
