In Books
In Robert A. Heinlein's The Number of the Beast, which takes place across numerous alternate universes, the protagonist is asked to identify his timeline, which he does by naming the U.S. Presidents during his lifetime: "Woodrow Wilson—I was named for him—Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy." Upon which another character replies: "Which brings us to 1984, right?" This implies that in Wilson's timeline, the assassination didn't happen.
J. G. Ballard wrote a 1967 short-short story entitled "The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy considered as a downhill motor race."
The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson depicts the assassination scene, with several would-be assassins trying to kill Kennedy simultaneously.
In Mark Winegardner's The Godfather's Revenge, the assassination of fictional President James Kavanaugh Shea is a parody of the assassination of J.F.K.
In the graphic novel Watchmen by Alan Moore, which portrays an alternate history of America, the character of The Comedian is asked at a dinner party honoring President Richard Nixon if he is clean in relation to the murder of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. He replies, "Yeah, I'm clean. Just don't ask me where I was when JFK died." Throughout the novel, The Comedian engaged in black ops work for Nixon, yet The Comedian's involvement in the assassination is only implied.
In Stanley Shapiro's novel A Time to Remember, a history teacher goes back in time to stop the Kennedy assassination, in an effort to prevent the Vietnam war and his brother's death in the conflict.
Stephen King's novel 11/22/63, published in 2011, tells about a time traveler trying to stop the assassination, thereby encountering the dilemma of changing history's course.
Read more about this topic: Assassination Of John F. Kennedy In Popular Culture
Famous quotes containing the word books:
“There is a sort of homely truth and naturalness in some books which is very rare to find, and yet looks cheap enough. There may be nothing lofty in the sentiment, or fine in the expression, but it is careless country talk. Homeliness is almost as great a merit in a book as in a house, if the reader would abide there. It is next to beauty, and a very high art. Some have this merit only.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“There is no luck in literary reputation. They who make up the final verdict upon every book are not the partial and noisy readers of the hour when it appears; but a court as of angels, a public not to be bribed, not to be entreated, and not to be overawed, decides upon every man’s title to fame. Only those books come down which deserve to last.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)