In this landmark autobiography, five years in the making, Senator Edward M. Kennedy tells his extraordinary personal story--of his legendary family, politics, and 50 years at the center of national events.

Reviews

Narrator John Bedford Lloyd has the appropriate gravitas and intensity for this autobiography that recaps so much history from the last half of the 20th century and humanizes the man who became "the lion of the Senate." [Audie Award; Audio, LJ 1/10] (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

In bringing Kennedy's sweeping memoir to life, John Bedford Lloyd conveys an intimacy and sincerity that allows for reverence without idolatry. Lloyd does his best work in conveying the Lion of the Senate's introspective musings on family, faith, and loss, but his portrayals of such figures as former presidents Carter and Reagan lapse into caricatures. Bonus features include a video interview, largely a summary of the book's contents, though still priceless from the standpoint of historical posterity. The PDF of photographs offers a rather impressive visual resource spanning the time period of Kennedy's narrative. A Twelve hardcover (Reviews, Oct. 5). (Oct.) Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

"Based on 50 years of notes and journal entries, this monumentally moving memoir illuminates nearly every aspect of the late senator's personal and public life and times. With incomparable wit and candor, Kennedy offers up his perspective on Senate colleagues, Presidents past, and most of all himself, revealing the tarnish along with the triumphs . . . Deeply affecting on the subjects of grief, his battle with brain cancer and his devotion to family, sailing and the Senate, this is an astonishingly intimate self-portrait of a man whose belief that 'if you persevere . . . you have a real opportunity to achieve something 'was born out by his extraordinary life."--People