LONGLISTED FOR THE 2022 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR NONFICTIONAn enthralling and ground-breaking
new biography of one of modern America s most fascinating and consequential political figures
drawing on important new sources by an award-winning biographer who covered Kennedy closely
for many years John A. Farrell s magnificent biography of Edward M. Kennedy is the first
single-volume life of the great figure since his death. Farrell s long acquaintance with the
Kennedy universe and the acclaim accorded his previous books including his New York Times
bestselling biography of Richard Nixon a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize helped garner him
access to a remarkable range of new sources including segments of Kennedy s personal diary and
his private confessions to members of his family in the days that followed the accident on
Chappaquiddick. Farrell is without question one of America s greatest political biographers
and a storyteller of deep wisdom and empathy. His book does full justice to this famously epic
and turbulent life of almost unimaginable tragedy and triumph. As the fourth son of the
close-knit but fiercely competitive Kennedy clan Ted was the runt of the litter. Expelled from
Harvard University for cheating he was a fun-loving playboy who nevertheless served his
brothers loyally and effectively. It was easy to take Ted lightly and many did. But when he
was elected to the United States Senate at the age of thirty to fill his brother Jack s seat
something unexpected happened: he found his home and his calling there. Over time Ted Kennedy
would build arguably the most significant senatorial career in American history. His life was
buffeted by heartbreak: the violent deaths of his three older brothers his own terrible plane
crash his children s bouts with cancer and the hideous self-inflicted wounds of
Chappaquiddick and stretches of drinking and womanizing that caused irreparable damage to an
already fragile first marriage. Those wounds scarred Ted deeply but also tempered his character
and eventually he embarked on a run as legislator party elder and paterfamilias of the
Kennedy family that would change America for the better. John A. Farrell brings us the man as
he was in strength and weakness his profound but complicated inheritance and his vital legacy
as only a great biographer can do. Without the story this book tells no understanding of
modern America can be complete.
