Description

Easton Press leather edition of "Ted Kennedy: Scenes from an Epic Life, by Writers of The Boston Globe," a COLLECTOR'S edition, published in 2009. Bound in dark green leather with a collage of pictures on the front board, the book has camel tan moire silk end leaves, acid-free paper, Symth-sewn binding, a satin book marker, hubbed spine, gold gilding on three edges---in near FINE condition---except for a 'blank' attached bookplate on second blank page. Edward Moore Kennedy, who lived from 1932-2009, was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts who served as a U.S. Senator from 1962 until his death. The ninth child of Joseph and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, Ted was a member of a prominent Irish American family. His older brother John asked to be the newborn's godfather, a request the parents honored. As a child he was frequently uprooted and attended 10 schools by the age of eleven. He was an altar boy at St. Joseph's Church and was seven when he received his First Communion from POPE PIUS XII in the Vatican. He and his family lived in London when his father was the Ambassador to the Court of St. James, but Rose and the children returned to the U.S. when the Germans began bombing London. After high school, Ted attended Harvard where he was a mediocre student but excelled at football. He was also a member of the tennis team and participated in drama, debate, and the glee club. He was 6'2" tall, with broad shoulders, a thick head of dark brown hair and hairy chest---and women thought him "drop-dead handsome." Before he married Joan Bennett in 1958 at age 26, he had "bedded" scores of women in Europe and the U.S. In 1951, he enlisted in the U.S. Army after being expelled from Harvard for cheating on a Spanish exam. After his military service, he returned to Harvard where he graduated and later graduated from Law School at the University of Virginia where he had to study "four times as hard and four times as long" as other students to keep up. He was often arrested for reckless driving, but he was fun-loving and the "life of the party" and with his "Kennedy smile" and charming personality, he won hearts and even after marriage, women pursued him relentlessly and he often accommodated. He and Joan became parents to three children, Kara, Edward, and Patrick. In 1962, Ted was elected to the Senate from Massachusetts. His brother, John, was President of the U.S. and his brother, Bobby, was Attorney General. Until 1969, the Kennedys dominated the national scene. After t he "Chappaquiddick incident" of 1969 when Ted ran off a bridge on Martha's Vineyard and Mary Jo Kopechne was found dead several hours later in the submerged car, the news made national headlines. Ted pleaded guilty to leaving the scene and received a two-year suspended sentence. The incident and its aftermath hindered his chances of becoming president--although he ran for the Democratic Party's nominee but lost to the incumbent president, Jimmy Carter. Kennedy was known for his oratorial skills and his cry for modern American liberalism were among his best-known speeches. He championed interventionist government that emphasized economic and social justice. Over the course of his Senate career, he made efforts to enact universal health care. The photos in this volume capture his journey from the youngest of nine children to the patriarch and custodian of American liberalism. It is the long, impressive, and enduring story of a great American life with photos of his grandfather, Boston Mayor, Honey Fitz Fitzgerald, and his family. Ted Kennedy was the second most senior member of the Senate when he died and ranked fifth for continuous service as a senator. His brothers called Ted "the hardest- working one of the Kennedy clan." Jackie Kennedy Onassis wrote after Ted had walked her daughter, Caroline, down the wedding aisle: "On you, the carefree youngest brother, fell a burden a hero would have begged to have been spared." "We're all going to make it because you're always there with your love." He was buried with John and Jacqueline, and Robert, on the hillside in Arlington, between two maple trees. "He was not perfect, far from it, Ted. Jr. told the mourners. "But my father believed in redemption." Barrack Obama's eulogy conveyed a similar sentiment and a selection from one of Kennedy's favorite poems by William Wordsworth. 100 Folio-sized pages---a true "coffee table" book. I offer combined shipping.