Those who dwell in the House of Kennedy work hard, live hard, and win at all costs. But just how much has it cost them? The Kennedy name is synonymous with American royalty. The family commitment to public service is legendary and enduring. But all their wild charisma has been dashed by disgrace and tragedy: Assassinations. Murder. Plane crashes. Fatal accidents. Mental illness. Drug overdoses. Alcohol abuse, and plenty of sex scandals. This family of widows and fatherless children has been cursed with nearly unimaginable losses -- yet even today, there remains a glamorous aura around the indomitable Kennedys. #1 bestselling author James Patterson once again tells a spellbinding story to "maximum dramatic effect" (The Wall Street Journal) --and this one is all true.
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9780316454483
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Hardcover
After Camelot
By Taraborrelli, J. Randy
For more than half a century, Americans have been captivated by the Kennedys - their joy and heartbreak, tragedy and triumph, the dark side and the remarkable achievements. In this ambitious and sweeping account, Taraborelli continues the family chronicle begun with his bestselling Jackie, Ethel, Joan and provides a behind-the-scenes look at the years after Camelot. He describes the challenges Bobbys children faced as they grew into adulthood Eunice and Sargent Shrivers remarkable philanthropic work the emotional turmoil Jackie faced after JFKs murder and the complexities of her eventual marriage to Aristotle Onassis the the sudden death of JFK JR and the stoicism and grace of his sister Caroline. He also brings into clear focus the complex and intriguing story of Edward Teddy and shows how he influenced the sensibilities of the next generation and challenged them to uphold the Kennedy name.
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9780446553902
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Hardcover
The Sins of the Father
By Kessler, Ronald
For all his wealth and power, Joe Kennedy was not a happy man. He also had no shame. What he cared about was having power. Through the political dynasty that he founded, he achieved that for generations to come. If he hurt and corrupted others in the process, no one had the courag
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9780446518840
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The Nine of Us
By Smith, Jean Kennedy
In this evocative and affectionate memoir, Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith, the last surviving child of Joe and Rose Kennedy, offers an intimate and illuminating look at a time long ago when she and her siblings, guided by their parents, laughed and learned a great deal under one roof.Prompted by interesting tidbits in the newspaper, Rose and Joe Kennedy would pose questions to their nine children at the dinner table. "Where could Amelia Earhart have gone?" "How would you address this horrible drought?" "What would you do about the troop movements in Europe?" It was a nightly custom that helped shape the Kennedys into who they would become.Before Joe and Rose's children emerged as leaders on the world stage, they were a loving circle of brothers and sisters who played football, swam, read, and pursued their interests. They were children inspired by parents who instilled in them a strong work ethic, deep love of country, and intense appreciation for the sacrifices their ancestors made to come to America."No whining in this house!" was their father's regular refrain. It was his way of reminding them not to complain, to be grateful for what they had, and to give back. In her remarkable memoir, Kennedy Smith - the last surviving sibling - revisits this singular time in their lives. Filled with fascinating anecdotes and vignettes, and illustrated with dozens of family pictures, The Nine of Us vividly depicts this large, close-knit family during a different time in American history. Kennedy Smith offers indelible, elegantly rendered portraits of her larger-than-life siblings and her parents. "They knew how to cure our hurts, bind our wounds, listen to our woes, and help us enjoy life," she writes. "We were lucky children indeed."
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9780062444226
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Print book
These Few Precious Days
By Andersen, Christopher
The days dwindle down, to a precious few . . . from September Song, JFKs favorite They were the original power couple outlandishly rich, impossibly attractive, and endlessly fascinating. Now, in this rare, behind-the-scenes portrait of the Kennedys in their final year together, 1 New York Times bestselling biographer Christopher Andersen shows us a side of JFK and Jackie weve never seen before. Tender, intimate, complex, and, at times, explosive, theirs is a love story unlike any otherfilled with secrets, scandals, and bombshells that could never be fully revealed . . . until now. Including Stunning new details about the Kennedys rumored affairshers as well as hisand how they ultimately overcame all odds to save their marriage The presidents many premonitions of his own death, and how he repeatedly tried to pull out of his last fateful trip to Dallas Shocking revelations about how the couple, unaware of the dangers, became dependent on amphetamine injections, the real reason according to his longtime personal physician for JFKs notorious libido, and how the White House hid his many serious medical problems from the public How the tragic death of their infant son Patrick led to an emotional outpouring from the president that surprised even their closest friendsand brought JFK and Jackie closer than they had ever been Touching firsthand accounts of the familys most private moments, before and after the assassination Drawing on hundreds of interviews conducted with the Kennedys inner circlefrom family members and lifelong friends to key advisors and political confidantesAndersen takes us deeper inside the world of the president and his first lady than ever before.
Publisher: n/a
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9781476732329
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Hardcover
Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis
By Leaming, Barbara
The instant New York Times and USA Today bestseller!The untold story of how one woman's life was changed forever in a matter of seconds by a horrific trauma.Barbara Leaming's extraordinary and deeply sensitive biography is the first book to document Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' brutal, lonely and valiant thirty-one year struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that followed JFK's assassination.Here is the woman as she has never been seen before. In heartrending detail, we witness a struggle that unfolded at times before our own eyes, but which we failed to understand.Leaming's biography also makes clear the pattern of Jackie's life as a whole. We see how a spirited young woman's rejection of a predictable life led her to John F. Kennedy and the White House, how she sought to reconcile the conflicts of her marriage and the role she was to play, and how the trauma of her husband's murder which left her soaked in his blood and brains led her to seek a very different kind of life from the one she'd previously sought.
Publisher: n/a
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9781250017642
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Hardcover
Eunice
By Mcnamara, Eileen
A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist examines the life and times of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, arguing she left behind the Kennedy family's most profound political legacy.While Joe Kennedy was grooming his sons for the White House and the Senate, his Stanford-educated daughter Eunice was tapping her father's fortune and her brothers' political power to engineer one of the great civil rights movements of our time on behalf of millions of children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Now, in Eunice, Pulitzer Prize winner Eileen McNamara finally brings Eunice Kennedy Shriver out from her brothers' shadow to show an officious, cigar-smoking, indefatigable woman of unladylike determination and deep compassion born of rage: at the medical establishment that had no answers for her sister Rosemary; at the revered but dismissive father whose vision for his family did not extend beyond his sons; and at the government that failed to deliver on America's promise of equality. Granted access to never-before-seen private papers - from the scrapbooks Eunice kept as a schoolgirl in prewar London to her thoughts on motherhood and feminism - McNamara paints a vivid portrait of a woman both ahead of her time and out of step with it: the visionary founder of the Special Olympics, a devout Catholic in a secular age, and a formidable woman whose impact on American society was longer lasting than that of any of the Kennedy men.
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9781451642261
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Hardcover
Bobby Kennedy
By Tye, Larry
From the New York Times bestselling author of Satchel comes an in-depth, vibrant, and measured biography about the most complex and controversial member of the Kennedy family. History remembers Robert F. Kennedy as a racial healer, a tribune for the poor, and the last progressive knight of a bygone era of American politics. But Kennedy's enshrinement in the liberal pantheon was actually the final stage of a journey that had its beginnings in the conservative 1950s. In Bobby Kennedy, Larry Tye peels away layers of myth and misconception to paint a complete portrait of this singularly fascinating figure. To capture the full arc of his subject's life, Tye draws on unpublished memoirs, unreleased government files, and fifty-eight boxes of papers that had been under lock and key for the past forty years. He conducted hundreds of interviews with RFK intimates - including Bobby's widow, Ethel, his sister Jean, and his aide John Siegenthaler - many of whom have never spoken to another biographer. Tye's determination to sift through the tangle of often contradictory opinions means that Bobby Kennedy will stand as the definitive one-volume biography of a man much beloved, but just as often misunderstood. Bobby Kennedy's transformation from cold warrior to fiery liberal is a profoundly moving personal story that also offers a lens onto two of the most chaotic and confounding decades of twentieth-century American history. The first half of RFK's career underlines what the country was like in the era of Eisenhower, while his last years as a champion of the underclass reflect the seismic shifts wrought by the 1960s. Nurtured on the rightist orthodoxies of his dynasty-building father, Bobby Kennedy began his public life as counsel to the red-baiting senator Joseph McCarthy. He ended it with a noble campaign to unite working-class whites with poor blacks and Latinos in an electoral coalition that seemed poised to redraw the face of presidential politics. Along the way, he turned up at the center of every event that mattered, from the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis to race riots and Vietnam. Bare-knuckle operative, cynical White House insider, romantic visionary - Bobby Kennedy was all of these things at one time or another, and each of these aspects of his personality emerges in the pages of this powerful and perceptive new biography.Advance praise for Bobby Kennedy"It is difficult to envision anyone getting Robert F. Kennedy more right than biographer Tye does in this superb book. Tye beautifully captures Kennedy's contradictions, his emergence from under the hard-to-like father to whom he remained forever loyal, and his growth into a public figure killed by an assassin's bullet." - Publishers Weekly (starred review) "This is not just another Bobby Kennedy book. It is the definitive biography of one of America's most compelling political figures. Tye's book rests on prodigious and original research including rare, on-the-record interviews with Bobby's widow, Ethel, who confesses that seeing Bobby for the first time was like meeting George Clooney." - Roger Mudd, winner of the Peabody Award and former co-anchor of NBC Nightly News"Robert Kennedy led one of the great unfinished lives in American history. With skill and verve, Tye has written a fascinating account of a transformative figure." - Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power "This biography will appeal not only to those wanting a portrait of a dynamic idealist, but also to those seeking to understand the emotions of the times in which he lived." - Henry A. Kissinger
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9780812993349
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Print book
Kick Kennedy
By Leaming, Barbara
Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy was the incandescent life-force of the fabled Kennedy family, her father's acknowledged "favorite of all the children" and her brother Jack's "psychological twin." She was the Kennedy of Kennedys, sure of her privilege, magnetically charming and somehow not quite like anyone else on whatever stage she happened to grace.The daughter of the American ambassador to the Court of St. James's, Kick swept into Britain's aristocracy like a fresh wind on a sweltering summer day. In a decaying world where everything was based on stultifying sameness and similarity, she was gloriously, exhilaratingly different. Kick was the girl whom all the boys fell in love with, the girl who remained painfully out of reach for most of them.To Kick, everything about this life was fun and amusing--until suddenly it was not. For this is also a story of how a girl like Kick, a girl who had everything, a girl who seemed made for happiness, confronted crushing sadness. Willing to pay the price for choosing the love she wanted, she would have to face the consequences of forsaking much that was dear to her.Bestselling and award-winning biographer Barbara Leaming draws on her unique access to firsthand accounts, extensive conversations with many of the key players, and previously-unseen sources to transport us to another world, one of immense wealth, arcane rituals and rules, glamour and tragedy, that has now disappeared forever. It was a world of dukes and duchesses, of grand houses, of country house weekends, and of wild rich boys. But it was also a world of blood and war, and of immeasurable loss. It was a time of complete upheaval, as reflected in the life of this most unlikely and unforgettable central character. Kick Kennedy reveals her story, that of a young girl learning about love, sex, and death--and doing it all at warp speed as the world races toward war and then reels in the war's chaotic aftermath. This is the coming-of-age story of the female star of the Kennedy family, and ultimately a tragic, romantic story that will break your heart.
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9781250071316
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Print book
Rosemary
By Larson, Kate Clifford
They were the most prominent American family of the twentieth century. The daughter they secreted away made all the difference. Joe and Rose Kennedy's strikingly beautiful daughter Rosemary attended exclusive schools, was presented as a debutante to the Queen of England, and traveled the world with her high-spirited sisters. And yet, Rosemary was intellectually disabled - a secret fiercely guarded by her powerful and glamorous family. Major new sources - Rose Kennedy's diaries and correspondence, school and doctors' letters, and exclusive family interviews - bring Rosemary alive as a girl adored but left far behind by her competitive siblings. Kate Larson reveals both the sensitive care Rose and Joe gave to Rosemary and then - as the family's standing reached an apex - the often desperate and duplicitous arrangements the Kennedys made to keep her away from home as she became increasingly intractable in her early twenties. Finally, Larson illuminates Joe's decision to have Rosemary lobotomized at age twenty-three, and the family's complicity in keeping the secret. Rosemary delivers a profoundly moving coda: JFK visited Rosemary for the first time while campaigning in the Midwest; she had been living isolated in a Wisconsin institution for nearly twenty years. Only then did the siblings understand what had happened to Rosemary and bring her home for loving family visits. It was a reckoning that inspired them to direct attention to the plight of the disabled, transforming the lives of millions.
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9780547250250
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Print book
Last Lion
By Canellos, Peter S.
No figure in American public life has had such great expectations thrust upon him, or has responded so poorly. But Ted Kennedy -- the youngest of the Kennedy children and the son who felt the least pressure to satisfy his father's enormous ambitions -- would go on to live a life that no one could have predicted: dismissed as a spent force in politics by the time he reached middle age, Ted became the most powerful senator of the last half century and the nation's keeper of traditional liberalism. As Peter S. Canellos and his team of Boston Globe reporters show in this revealing and intimate biography, the gregarious and least academically successful of the Kennedy boys has witnessed greater tragedy and suffered greater pressure than any of his siblings.
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9781439138175
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Hardcover
The Kennedy Heirs
By Taraborrelli, J. Randy
From New York Times bestselling author J. Randy Taraborrelli comes The Kennedy Heirs, his most revealing Kennedy book yet.A unique burden was inherited by the children of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy and his celebrated siblings, Senators Robert and Ted Kennedy. Raised in a world of enormous privilege against the backdrop of American history, this third generation of Kennedys often veered between towering accomplishment and devastating defeat. In his revelatory new book, acclaimed Kennedy historian J. Randy Taraborrelli draws back the curtain on the next generation of America's most famous family. John Kennedy, Jr.'s life in the public eye is explored, following the Kennedy scion as he faced the challenges posed by marrying his great love, Carolyn Bessette. Riveting new details are shared about the couple's tragic demise -- and why Ethel Kennedy advised Carolyn not to take the trip that would ultimately end her life. John's sister, Caroline Kennedy, had her own complicated relationships, including a marriage to Ed Schlossberg that surprised her mother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and an unexpected bond with her mother-in-law, Mae Schlossberg.Additional stories, many shared here for the first time, illuminate the rest of the Kennedy dynasty: Kara Kennedy, Ted's daughter, and her valiant battle against lung cancer; how Ted's wife, Vicki, introduced a new era of feminism to the Kennedy family; the lifelong struggles with addiction faced by Bobby Kennedy Jr. and Patrick Kennedy; the unexpected way pop star Taylor Swift helped Conor Kennedy heal after the death of his mother, Bobby's wife Mary; and Congressman Joe Kennedy III's rise to prominence. At the center of it all is the family's indomitable matriarch, Ethel Kennedy -- a formidable presence with her maddening eccentricities and inspiring courage.Based on hundreds of exclusive first-hand interviews and cultivated over twenty years of research -- including numerous Oral Histories from the JFK Library and the Edward M. Kennedy Institute -- The Kennedy Heirs is an epic drama of ambition, scandal, pride and power.
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9781250174062
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Hardcover
Fairy Tale Interrupted
By Terenzio, Rosemarie
To everyone else, John F. Kennedy Jr. may have been American royalty, but to RoseMarie Terenzio he was an entitled nuisance - and she wasn't afraid to let him know it. RoseMarie was his personal assistant, his publicist, and one of his closest confidantes during the last five years of his life. In this, her first memoir, she bravely recounts her own Fairy Tale Interrupted, describing the unlikely friendship between a blue-collar girl from the Bronx and John F. Kennedy Jr. Funny, moving, and fresh, her memoir is a unique account by the woman who was with him through dating, politics, the paparazzi, and his marriage to Carolyn Bessette. Her street smarts, paired with her loyalty, candor, and relentless work ethic, made her the trusted insider to America's most famous man.
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9781439187678
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Hardcover
American Legacy
By Heymann, C. David
From the moment of their births, John and Caroline Kennedy occupied a central position in what is generally regarded as the most famous family in the United States, if not the world. Even as young children growing up in the White House, their most subtle gestures and actions made headlines.... Yet until now they have not been the subject of a dual biography. In that sense, this volume represents a first.In American Legacy, #1 New York Times bestselling author C. David Heymann draws upon a voluminous archive of personal interviews to present a telling portrait of John and Caroline Kennedy. A longtime biographer of various members of the Kennedy clan, including Jackie and Robert Kennedy, Heymann covers John's and Caroline's childhood in the White House, the dark aftermath of their father's assassination, their uneasy adolescence, and the many challenges they faced as adults, all under the glaring eye of the media.
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9780743497381
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Hardcover
End of Days
By Swanson, James L.
In End of Days, James L. Swanson, the New York Times bestselling author of Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer, brings to life the minute-by-minute details of the JFK assassination—from the Kennedys' arrival in Texas through the shooting in Dealey Plaza and the shocking aftermath that continues to reverberate in our national consciousness fifty years later.The assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, has been the subject of enduring debate, speculation, and numerous conspiracy theories, but Swanson's absorbing and complete account follows the event hour-by-hour, from the moment Lee Harvey Oswald conceived of the crime three days before its execution, to his own murder two days later at a Dallas Police precinct at the hands of Jack Ruby, a two-bit nightclub owner.
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9780062083487
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Hardcover
The Last Campaign
By Clarke, Thurston
With new research and previously unavailable interviews, The Last Campaign provides an intimate and absorbing historical narrative that goes right to the heart of Americas deepest despairs - and most fiercely held dreams - and tells us more than we had understood before about this complicated man and the heightened dramas of his times. After John F. Kennedys assassination, Robert Kennedy - formerly Jacks no-holds-barred political warrior - almost lost hope. He was haunted by his brothers murder, and by the nations seeming inabilities to solve its problems of race, poverty, and the war in Vietnam. Bobby sensed the countrys pain, and when he announced that he was running for president, the country united behind his hopes. Over the action-packed 82 days of his campaign, Americans were inspired by Kennedys promise to lead them toward a better time. And after an assassins bullet stopped this last great stirring public figure of the 1960s, crowds lined up along the countrys railroad tracks to say goodbye to Bobby.Clarkes The Last Campaign is the definitive account of Robert Kennedys exhilarating and tragic 1968 campaign for president - and a revelatory history that is especially resonant now.
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9780805077926
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Audiobook
Senatorial Privilege
By Damore, Leo
An achievement of reportorial diligence, this book tells a story that the most imaginative crime novelist would have been hard put to invent. -- People
The House of Kennedy
By Patterson, James
Those who dwell in the House of Kennedy work hard, live hard, and win at all costs. But just how much has it cost them? The Kennedy name is synonymous with American royalty. The family commitment to public service is legendary and enduring. But all their wild charisma has been dashed by disgrace and tragedy: Assassinations. Murder. Plane crashes. Fatal accidents. Mental illness. Drug overdoses. Alcohol abuse, and plenty of sex scandals. This family of widows and fatherless children has been cursed with nearly unimaginable losses -- yet even today, there remains a glamorous aura around the indomitable Kennedys. #1 bestselling author James Patterson once again tells a spellbinding story to "maximum dramatic effect" (The Wall Street Journal) --and this one is all true.
After Camelot
By Taraborrelli, J. Randy
For more than half a century, Americans have been captivated by the Kennedys - their joy and heartbreak, tragedy and triumph, the dark side and the remarkable achievements. In this ambitious and sweeping account, Taraborelli continues the family chronicle begun with his bestselling Jackie, Ethel, Joan and provides a behind-the-scenes look at the years after Camelot. He describes the challenges Bobbys children faced as they grew into adulthood Eunice and Sargent Shrivers remarkable philanthropic work the emotional turmoil Jackie faced after JFKs murder and the complexities of her eventual marriage to Aristotle Onassis the the sudden death of JFK JR and the stoicism and grace of his sister Caroline. He also brings into clear focus the complex and intriguing story of Edward Teddy and shows how he influenced the sensibilities of the next generation and challenged them to uphold the Kennedy name.
The Sins of the Father
By Kessler, Ronald
For all his wealth and power, Joe Kennedy was not a happy man. He also had no shame. What he cared about was having power. Through the political dynasty that he founded, he achieved that for generations to come. If he hurt and corrupted others in the process, no one had the courag
The Nine of Us
By Smith, Jean Kennedy
In this evocative and affectionate memoir, Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith, the last surviving child of Joe and Rose Kennedy, offers an intimate and illuminating look at a time long ago when she and her siblings, guided by their parents, laughed and learned a great deal under one roof.Prompted by interesting tidbits in the newspaper, Rose and Joe Kennedy would pose questions to their nine children at the dinner table. "Where could Amelia Earhart have gone?" "How would you address this horrible drought?" "What would you do about the troop movements in Europe?" It was a nightly custom that helped shape the Kennedys into who they would become.Before Joe and Rose's children emerged as leaders on the world stage, they were a loving circle of brothers and sisters who played football, swam, read, and pursued their interests. They were children inspired by parents who instilled in them a strong work ethic, deep love of country, and intense appreciation for the sacrifices their ancestors made to come to America."No whining in this house!" was their father's regular refrain. It was his way of reminding them not to complain, to be grateful for what they had, and to give back. In her remarkable memoir, Kennedy Smith - the last surviving sibling - revisits this singular time in their lives. Filled with fascinating anecdotes and vignettes, and illustrated with dozens of family pictures, The Nine of Us vividly depicts this large, close-knit family during a different time in American history. Kennedy Smith offers indelible, elegantly rendered portraits of her larger-than-life siblings and her parents. "They knew how to cure our hurts, bind our wounds, listen to our woes, and help us enjoy life," she writes. "We were lucky children indeed."
These Few Precious Days
By Andersen, Christopher
The days dwindle down, to a precious few . . . from September Song, JFKs favorite They were the original power couple outlandishly rich, impossibly attractive, and endlessly fascinating. Now, in this rare, behind-the-scenes portrait of the Kennedys in their final year together, 1 New York Times bestselling biographer Christopher Andersen shows us a side of JFK and Jackie weve never seen before. Tender, intimate, complex, and, at times, explosive, theirs is a love story unlike any otherfilled with secrets, scandals, and bombshells that could never be fully revealed . . . until now. Including Stunning new details about the Kennedys rumored affairshers as well as hisand how they ultimately overcame all odds to save their marriage The presidents many premonitions of his own death, and how he repeatedly tried to pull out of his last fateful trip to Dallas Shocking revelations about how the couple, unaware of the dangers, became dependent on amphetamine injections, the real reason according to his longtime personal physician for JFKs notorious libido, and how the White House hid his many serious medical problems from the public How the tragic death of their infant son Patrick led to an emotional outpouring from the president that surprised even their closest friendsand brought JFK and Jackie closer than they had ever been Touching firsthand accounts of the familys most private moments, before and after the assassination Drawing on hundreds of interviews conducted with the Kennedys inner circlefrom family members and lifelong friends to key advisors and political confidantesAndersen takes us deeper inside the world of the president and his first lady than ever before.
Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis
By Leaming, Barbara
The instant New York Times and USA Today bestseller!The untold story of how one woman's life was changed forever in a matter of seconds by a horrific trauma.Barbara Leaming's extraordinary and deeply sensitive biography is the first book to document Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' brutal, lonely and valiant thirty-one year struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that followed JFK's assassination.Here is the woman as she has never been seen before. In heartrending detail, we witness a struggle that unfolded at times before our own eyes, but which we failed to understand.Leaming's biography also makes clear the pattern of Jackie's life as a whole. We see how a spirited young woman's rejection of a predictable life led her to John F. Kennedy and the White House, how she sought to reconcile the conflicts of her marriage and the role she was to play, and how the trauma of her husband's murder which left her soaked in his blood and brains led her to seek a very different kind of life from the one she'd previously sought.
Eunice
By Mcnamara, Eileen
A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist examines the life and times of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, arguing she left behind the Kennedy family's most profound political legacy.While Joe Kennedy was grooming his sons for the White House and the Senate, his Stanford-educated daughter Eunice was tapping her father's fortune and her brothers' political power to engineer one of the great civil rights movements of our time on behalf of millions of children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Now, in Eunice, Pulitzer Prize winner Eileen McNamara finally brings Eunice Kennedy Shriver out from her brothers' shadow to show an officious, cigar-smoking, indefatigable woman of unladylike determination and deep compassion born of rage: at the medical establishment that had no answers for her sister Rosemary; at the revered but dismissive father whose vision for his family did not extend beyond his sons; and at the government that failed to deliver on America's promise of equality. Granted access to never-before-seen private papers - from the scrapbooks Eunice kept as a schoolgirl in prewar London to her thoughts on motherhood and feminism - McNamara paints a vivid portrait of a woman both ahead of her time and out of step with it: the visionary founder of the Special Olympics, a devout Catholic in a secular age, and a formidable woman whose impact on American society was longer lasting than that of any of the Kennedy men.
Bobby Kennedy
By Tye, Larry
From the New York Times bestselling author of Satchel comes an in-depth, vibrant, and measured biography about the most complex and controversial member of the Kennedy family. History remembers Robert F. Kennedy as a racial healer, a tribune for the poor, and the last progressive knight of a bygone era of American politics. But Kennedy's enshrinement in the liberal pantheon was actually the final stage of a journey that had its beginnings in the conservative 1950s. In Bobby Kennedy, Larry Tye peels away layers of myth and misconception to paint a complete portrait of this singularly fascinating figure. To capture the full arc of his subject's life, Tye draws on unpublished memoirs, unreleased government files, and fifty-eight boxes of papers that had been under lock and key for the past forty years. He conducted hundreds of interviews with RFK intimates - including Bobby's widow, Ethel, his sister Jean, and his aide John Siegenthaler - many of whom have never spoken to another biographer. Tye's determination to sift through the tangle of often contradictory opinions means that Bobby Kennedy will stand as the definitive one-volume biography of a man much beloved, but just as often misunderstood. Bobby Kennedy's transformation from cold warrior to fiery liberal is a profoundly moving personal story that also offers a lens onto two of the most chaotic and confounding decades of twentieth-century American history. The first half of RFK's career underlines what the country was like in the era of Eisenhower, while his last years as a champion of the underclass reflect the seismic shifts wrought by the 1960s. Nurtured on the rightist orthodoxies of his dynasty-building father, Bobby Kennedy began his public life as counsel to the red-baiting senator Joseph McCarthy. He ended it with a noble campaign to unite working-class whites with poor blacks and Latinos in an electoral coalition that seemed poised to redraw the face of presidential politics. Along the way, he turned up at the center of every event that mattered, from the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis to race riots and Vietnam. Bare-knuckle operative, cynical White House insider, romantic visionary - Bobby Kennedy was all of these things at one time or another, and each of these aspects of his personality emerges in the pages of this powerful and perceptive new biography.Advance praise for Bobby Kennedy"It is difficult to envision anyone getting Robert F. Kennedy more right than biographer Tye does in this superb book. Tye beautifully captures Kennedy's contradictions, his emergence from under the hard-to-like father to whom he remained forever loyal, and his growth into a public figure killed by an assassin's bullet." - Publishers Weekly (starred review) "This is not just another Bobby Kennedy book. It is the definitive biography of one of America's most compelling political figures. Tye's book rests on prodigious and original research including rare, on-the-record interviews with Bobby's widow, Ethel, who confesses that seeing Bobby for the first time was like meeting George Clooney." - Roger Mudd, winner of the Peabody Award and former co-anchor of NBC Nightly News"Robert Kennedy led one of the great unfinished lives in American history. With skill and verve, Tye has written a fascinating account of a transformative figure." - Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power "This biography will appeal not only to those wanting a portrait of a dynamic idealist, but also to those seeking to understand the emotions of the times in which he lived." - Henry A. Kissinger
Kick Kennedy
By Leaming, Barbara
Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy was the incandescent life-force of the fabled Kennedy family, her father's acknowledged "favorite of all the children" and her brother Jack's "psychological twin." She was the Kennedy of Kennedys, sure of her privilege, magnetically charming and somehow not quite like anyone else on whatever stage she happened to grace.The daughter of the American ambassador to the Court of St. James's, Kick swept into Britain's aristocracy like a fresh wind on a sweltering summer day. In a decaying world where everything was based on stultifying sameness and similarity, she was gloriously, exhilaratingly different. Kick was the girl whom all the boys fell in love with, the girl who remained painfully out of reach for most of them.To Kick, everything about this life was fun and amusing--until suddenly it was not. For this is also a story of how a girl like Kick, a girl who had everything, a girl who seemed made for happiness, confronted crushing sadness. Willing to pay the price for choosing the love she wanted, she would have to face the consequences of forsaking much that was dear to her.Bestselling and award-winning biographer Barbara Leaming draws on her unique access to firsthand accounts, extensive conversations with many of the key players, and previously-unseen sources to transport us to another world, one of immense wealth, arcane rituals and rules, glamour and tragedy, that has now disappeared forever. It was a world of dukes and duchesses, of grand houses, of country house weekends, and of wild rich boys. But it was also a world of blood and war, and of immeasurable loss. It was a time of complete upheaval, as reflected in the life of this most unlikely and unforgettable central character. Kick Kennedy reveals her story, that of a young girl learning about love, sex, and death--and doing it all at warp speed as the world races toward war and then reels in the war's chaotic aftermath. This is the coming-of-age story of the female star of the Kennedy family, and ultimately a tragic, romantic story that will break your heart.
Rosemary
By Larson, Kate Clifford
They were the most prominent American family of the twentieth century. The daughter they secreted away made all the difference. Joe and Rose Kennedy's strikingly beautiful daughter Rosemary attended exclusive schools, was presented as a debutante to the Queen of England, and traveled the world with her high-spirited sisters. And yet, Rosemary was intellectually disabled - a secret fiercely guarded by her powerful and glamorous family. Major new sources - Rose Kennedy's diaries and correspondence, school and doctors' letters, and exclusive family interviews - bring Rosemary alive as a girl adored but left far behind by her competitive siblings. Kate Larson reveals both the sensitive care Rose and Joe gave to Rosemary and then - as the family's standing reached an apex - the often desperate and duplicitous arrangements the Kennedys made to keep her away from home as she became increasingly intractable in her early twenties. Finally, Larson illuminates Joe's decision to have Rosemary lobotomized at age twenty-three, and the family's complicity in keeping the secret. Rosemary delivers a profoundly moving coda: JFK visited Rosemary for the first time while campaigning in the Midwest; she had been living isolated in a Wisconsin institution for nearly twenty years. Only then did the siblings understand what had happened to Rosemary and bring her home for loving family visits. It was a reckoning that inspired them to direct attention to the plight of the disabled, transforming the lives of millions.
Last Lion
By Canellos, Peter S.
No figure in American public life has had such great expectations thrust upon him, or has responded so poorly. But Ted Kennedy -- the youngest of the Kennedy children and the son who felt the least pressure to satisfy his father's enormous ambitions -- would go on to live a life that no one could have predicted: dismissed as a spent force in politics by the time he reached middle age, Ted became the most powerful senator of the last half century and the nation's keeper of traditional liberalism. As Peter S. Canellos and his team of Boston Globe reporters show in this revealing and intimate biography, the gregarious and least academically successful of the Kennedy boys has witnessed greater tragedy and suffered greater pressure than any of his siblings.
The Kennedy Heirs
By Taraborrelli, J. Randy
From New York Times bestselling author J. Randy Taraborrelli comes The Kennedy Heirs, his most revealing Kennedy book yet.A unique burden was inherited by the children of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy and his celebrated siblings, Senators Robert and Ted Kennedy. Raised in a world of enormous privilege against the backdrop of American history, this third generation of Kennedys often veered between towering accomplishment and devastating defeat. In his revelatory new book, acclaimed Kennedy historian J. Randy Taraborrelli draws back the curtain on the next generation of America's most famous family. John Kennedy, Jr.'s life in the public eye is explored, following the Kennedy scion as he faced the challenges posed by marrying his great love, Carolyn Bessette. Riveting new details are shared about the couple's tragic demise -- and why Ethel Kennedy advised Carolyn not to take the trip that would ultimately end her life. John's sister, Caroline Kennedy, had her own complicated relationships, including a marriage to Ed Schlossberg that surprised her mother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and an unexpected bond with her mother-in-law, Mae Schlossberg.Additional stories, many shared here for the first time, illuminate the rest of the Kennedy dynasty: Kara Kennedy, Ted's daughter, and her valiant battle against lung cancer; how Ted's wife, Vicki, introduced a new era of feminism to the Kennedy family; the lifelong struggles with addiction faced by Bobby Kennedy Jr. and Patrick Kennedy; the unexpected way pop star Taylor Swift helped Conor Kennedy heal after the death of his mother, Bobby's wife Mary; and Congressman Joe Kennedy III's rise to prominence. At the center of it all is the family's indomitable matriarch, Ethel Kennedy -- a formidable presence with her maddening eccentricities and inspiring courage.Based on hundreds of exclusive first-hand interviews and cultivated over twenty years of research -- including numerous Oral Histories from the JFK Library and the Edward M. Kennedy Institute -- The Kennedy Heirs is an epic drama of ambition, scandal, pride and power.
Fairy Tale Interrupted
By Terenzio, Rosemarie
To everyone else, John F. Kennedy Jr. may have been American royalty, but to RoseMarie Terenzio he was an entitled nuisance - and she wasn't afraid to let him know it. RoseMarie was his personal assistant, his publicist, and one of his closest confidantes during the last five years of his life. In this, her first memoir, she bravely recounts her own Fairy Tale Interrupted, describing the unlikely friendship between a blue-collar girl from the Bronx and John F. Kennedy Jr. Funny, moving, and fresh, her memoir is a unique account by the woman who was with him through dating, politics, the paparazzi, and his marriage to Carolyn Bessette. Her street smarts, paired with her loyalty, candor, and relentless work ethic, made her the trusted insider to America's most famous man.
American Legacy
By Heymann, C. David
From the moment of their births, John and Caroline Kennedy occupied a central position in what is generally regarded as the most famous family in the United States, if not the world. Even as young children growing up in the White House, their most subtle gestures and actions made headlines.... Yet until now they have not been the subject of a dual biography. In that sense, this volume represents a first.In American Legacy, #1 New York Times bestselling author C. David Heymann draws upon a voluminous archive of personal interviews to present a telling portrait of John and Caroline Kennedy. A longtime biographer of various members of the Kennedy clan, including Jackie and Robert Kennedy, Heymann covers John's and Caroline's childhood in the White House, the dark aftermath of their father's assassination, their uneasy adolescence, and the many challenges they faced as adults, all under the glaring eye of the media.
End of Days
By Swanson, James L.
In End of Days, James L. Swanson, the New York Times bestselling author of Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer, brings to life the minute-by-minute details of the JFK assassination—from the Kennedys' arrival in Texas through the shooting in Dealey Plaza and the shocking aftermath that continues to reverberate in our national consciousness fifty years later.The assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, has been the subject of enduring debate, speculation, and numerous conspiracy theories, but Swanson's absorbing and complete account follows the event hour-by-hour, from the moment Lee Harvey Oswald conceived of the crime three days before its execution, to his own murder two days later at a Dallas Police precinct at the hands of Jack Ruby, a two-bit nightclub owner.
The Last Campaign
By Clarke, Thurston
With new research and previously unavailable interviews, The Last Campaign provides an intimate and absorbing historical narrative that goes right to the heart of Americas deepest despairs - and most fiercely held dreams - and tells us more than we had understood before about this complicated man and the heightened dramas of his times. After John F. Kennedys assassination, Robert Kennedy - formerly Jacks no-holds-barred political warrior - almost lost hope. He was haunted by his brothers murder, and by the nations seeming inabilities to solve its problems of race, poverty, and the war in Vietnam. Bobby sensed the countrys pain, and when he announced that he was running for president, the country united behind his hopes. Over the action-packed 82 days of his campaign, Americans were inspired by Kennedys promise to lead them toward a better time. And after an assassins bullet stopped this last great stirring public figure of the 1960s, crowds lined up along the countrys railroad tracks to say goodbye to Bobby.Clarkes The Last Campaign is the definitive account of Robert Kennedys exhilarating and tragic 1968 campaign for president - and a revelatory history that is especially resonant now.
Senatorial Privilege
By Damore, Leo
An achievement of reportorial diligence, this book tells a story that the most imaginative crime novelist would have been hard put to invent. -- People