In April 1962, President and Mrs.
Held at the height of the Cold War, the Dinner symbolizes a time when intellectuals were esteemed, divergent viewpoints could be respectfully discussed at the highest level, and the great minds of an age might all dine together in the rarefied glamour of "the people\'s house.".
Actor Frederic March gave a public recitation after the meal, including some unpublished work of Hemingway\'s that later became part of Islands in the Stream.
Schlesinger, Jr., who argued with Ava Pauling at dinner; and many others.
Robert Oppenheimer, who was officially welcomed back to Washington after a stint in the political wilderness
Linus Pauling, who had picketed the White House that very afternoon
William and Rose Styron, who began a fifty-year friendship with the Kennedy family that night
James Baldwin, who would later discuss civil rights with Attorney General Robert Kennedy
Mary Welsh Hemingway, Ernest Hemingway\'s widow, who sat next to the president and grilled him on Cuba policy
John Glenn, who had recently orbited the earth aboard Friendship 7; historian Arthur M.
Among the guests were J.
Kennedy hosted forty-nine Nobel Prize winners--along with many other prominent scientists, artists, and writers--at a famed White House dinner.
John F.
In April 1962, President and Mrs
