READ THIS: True Compass by Edward M. Kennedy, Plus from the publisher: A Conversation with Senator Edward M. Kennedy (1932-2009) This interview with Senator Edward M. Kennedy about the making of TRUE COMPASS was conducted via email, in July 2009.

Peachy Deegan grew up in a family that is incredibly proud to be Irish.  Although she is other nationalities also and American above all, when all is said and done, Ireland is the first country she lived in outside of the United States (in Cork), the family cottage is named Shamrock Shore, Deegan is the name she picked to write under, and Peachy's grandmother and aunts shown in the pictures to the right are 100% Irish American.   When she was a freshman at Boston College in the fall of 1994, she campaigned for Senator Kennedy and he won capturing 58% of the vote over Mitt Romney.  Though Peachy did not know Senator Kennedy, we looked forward to this book review for a long time, and we knew we'd love it.  Sadly, both Senator Kennedy and Peachy's grandmother both died from a malignant brain tumor.  Surely they're reading this review from heaven...

Told in chronological order, True Compass reveals the private life of a person that seemed to be so public in a family that embraces public life to the utmost degree.  Do not be intimidated by the 500 plus pages-Peachy herself could not put it down and read it in less than 2 days.  More than anything, True Compass is the story of a great family, not just one person.  Edward M. Kennedy occupied a unique place in it, being the youngest of nine and his perspective is particularly interesting, especially if you are the oldest in your family as Peachy is.  

Why do we love Senator Kennedy?  One reason is he has great taste.

*He loved Legal Seafood Clam Chowder (We recommended it: http://www.whomyouknow.com/2009/12/peachys-pantry-whom-you-know-kicks-off.html)

*He loved the Red Sox.  Peachy is the only girl that ever wrote for Boston Baseball, to our knowledge.

*He named his horse Swifty.  We wonder if he ever ate there: http://www.whomyouknow.com/2010/02/peachy-picks-swiftys-swiftys-is-current.html

In any event, Carl Bernstein does and Peachy has seen him there.  Kennedy talks about Bernstein on p. 329

We think we might like Rose, his mother, even more in her devotion to grammar.  We hope she would love Whom You Know.  He says on p. 30:

"She was our unflagging grammarian and standard-bearer of decorous speech.  Woe unto those of us who neglected to use 'whom' after a preposition!  Once Mother wrote to me, 'I noticed you are quoted as using the word 'ass' in several expressions.  I do not think you should use that word.  I am sure you realize it really does not look very well in print.' I was forty years old and a senator when she sent that one.  It still hangs on my Senate office wall.  Still later, she nailed me again: 'I just saw a story in which you said: 'If I was president.'  You should have said, 'If I were president'...which is correct because it is a condition contrary to fact."

His father dispensed wisdom as well:

"My father had a great rule of thumb: bet on what you think a man will do rather than what he says he'll do and you'll be right more often than not." (p. 358)

His character really comes through in True Compass.  When diagnosed with cancer, he thought:

"...But I wasn't willing to accept the doctor's prognosis for two reasons.  The first was my own obstinate will to carry on in the face of adversity, one of the many habits of discipline that my father instilled in me and all of my brothers and sisters.  We were taught never to give up, never to passively accept fate, but to exhaust every last ounce of will and hope in the face of any challenge."  A great philosophy, we think.  Don't complain and do your best were also criteria he lived by and was brought up with.  He refused to acknowledge tabloids and in the face of criticism, he maintained a positive attitude.  No one is perfect.  What Kennedy has to say about Roger Mudd and also Chappaquiddick will get a lot of attention, but we want to focus on his character and how he lived positively.  He is right, atonement is a process that never ends...we know it's an Irish Catholic thing but we think it very well could be a universal thing also.  Finally, when things don't go your way, go sailing.

On page 400, Senator Kennedy tells us how he remembers his brother President Kennedy, and among the thoughts he states, we like this one best:

"He said and proved in word and deed that one man can make a difference."

The pictures that accompany the text are priceless and a great accompaniment to an even greater life.  We'd choose the living rose too, at the end.  Whom You Know highly recommends True Compass by Edward M. Kennedy.  We do know Kick Kennedy, and she is a Mover and Shaker: http://www.whomyouknow.com/2009/07/movers-and-shakers-kick-kennedy-of.html.  We think one great way to honor Senator Kennedy is to support Kick in her Mission for The Legacy Group.

***

A letter from the Publisher:

Dear Reader, 

      In the wake of his death, much has been written and said about the extraordinary life of Edward M. Kennedy. Much more will be said and written for years to come. Only True Compass can offer the story directly from Ted Kennedy’s own perspective. And what a great story it is.

      When Senator Kennedy began work on his autobiography, he told us he would strive to match the candor of Katharine Graham’s Personal History and the sweep of David McCullough’s work. Senator Kennedy was determined to show us what it was like to live through these times, to tackle the issues that changed our country, while working with ten U.S. presidents and so many other important and memorable personalities.  As the New York Times reported, whenever he discussed this book, he kept saying, “I’ve got to get this right for history.”
      There are many passages within these pages certain to generate news coverage and discussion among historians – observations about JFK, Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam; the Warren Commission; RFK and 1968; Watergate; Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton; and the workings of the U.S. Senate. But once the frisson of revelation has abated, we hope readers will appreciate the many other attributes of the work. Among other things, True Compass is a case study in perseverance, the story of a man who faced much adversity and kept trying to do better, and be better.
      Told chronologically in four parts – Family, Brotherhood, On My Own, and Renewal – True Compass is so full of incident and emotion that if it were fiction, no self-respecting novelist would allow so much to happen to one person in the course of a lifetime. For 77 years, Edward Kennedy lived at the center of a national legend. What distinguishes his book from everything else written about this remarkable family is that his is the most heartfelt and expansive inside account we’re likely to have.
      Despite being one of the world’s most recognized figures, Senator Kennedy rarely discussed his private opinions and personal feelings in public forums, a lifelong reticence that makes the openness in this engaging narrative all the more surprising. True Compass offers his most intimate reflections on his family, his spiritual faith, and his education as a politician and a man.
      So many aspects of the Ted Kennedy story are outsized: he was the ninth of nine children in Boston’s most prominent political family, and his birth was covered as news.  He received his First Communion from the pope at the Vatican. As a young boy, he met the queen of England and Babe Ruth.  Always in the public light, feeling “behind the eight ball” and trying to “catch up” with his competitive and accomplished siblings, he had a highly unusual childhood.  He attended ten schools in 13 years as his family moved about, and though he grew up in a family in which complaining was forbidden, he would have been justified in speaking up about his treatment at boarding school.
      John F. Kennedy was his godfather, 15 years his elder, practically a second father to him. (His description of campaigning on behalf of the first Catholic president, drawn from his contemporaneous notes, is a vivid contribution to history.)  Elected to the Senate in November 1962 at age 30, he soon joined his brothers in Washington for a magical year that ended in tragedy.
      Then, more tragedy and trauma – a near-fatal airplane crash, Chappaquiddick, Bobby’s assassination, and a difficult personal journey – all addressed with emotion. Anyone suffering from a loss will benefit from reading his chapter “The Living Rose,” in which he shares his insights into coping with grief and mortality.
      Through it all, he kept working. He conducted the first hearings into what became known as Watergate. He became a key participant in the quest for peace in Northern Ireland. He was a constant advocate for civil rights and many other progressive causes, most notably health care, an issue he has confronted personally so many times in his life.  In these pages, he poignantly describes his own battle with cancer. He hoped his account might help others who are confronting serious illness.
      Like many great stories, this one has many twists amid heartbreak and happiness, thanks in part to the love of the woman who changed his life, Victoria Reggie Kennedy, and his own enduring love of the U.S. Senate, where he is widely regarded as one of the greatest senators in U.S. history, the author of approximately 2,500 major bills, at least 300 of which have become laws, according to The Boston Globe.
      Nearly fifty years ago, as a young man helping his brother Jack campaign for the presidency, Ted Kennedy began taking notes about his experiences in his public life.  He continued doing so throughout his life. Those private observations provided a rich and detailed source for True Compass.
      Five years ago, Senator Kennedy began an oral history project at the Miller Center at the University of Virginia, interviews which informed subsequent conversations and numerous revisions of these pages with collaborator Ron Powers, whose biography of Mark Twain captivated Senator Kennedy. Our hope is that readers will appreciate True Compass not just as one man’s story, but a quintessentially American story. We know the contours of Ted Kennedy’s life, but hearing the story in his own voice gives us a new appreciation for a life lived with joy and purpose.
      It is my honor to share True Compass with you. 
Sincerely,

Jonathan Karp
Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, TWELVE 
p.s. Senator Kennedy describes his own thoughts on the process of writing True Compass in the attached document.

 

A Conversation with Senator Edward M. Kennedy (1932-2009)

This interview with Senator Edward M. Kennedy about the making of TRUE COMPASS was conducted via email, in July 2009.
 

Why did you write this book? 
For as long as I can remember, I had planned to write my memoirs.  I wanted to tell the story of my life and describe some of the history I’ve witnessed and been part of.  I’m a student of history, a lifelong reader, so I’ve always thought it would be the right thing to do at the right time.    
In 2004, I began an extensive series of interviews at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. They’ve undertaken the Edward M. Kennedy Oral History Project, covering my life and career.  As I prepared for the interviews, I looked at more than 50 years of contemporaneous personal notes that I’d kept along the way.  And as the process of the interviews evolved, I reflected more and more deeply on aspects of my life and experiences.  I felt it was time to begin writing my memoirs. 


What was your process? 
About two years ago, in addition to the material drawn from my personal notes and the oral history project, I began collaborating with a wonderful writer, Ron Powers.  Ron and I, and my editor and publisher Jon Karp, spent hours and hours together in Washington, Key Biscayne, and Hyannis Port.  I talked until I was hoarse.  I also answered page after page of follow up questions that Ron and Jon had after our meetings.  Then Ron would submit his draft.  I remembered how the great biographer David McCullough told me that his wife Rosalie would read every word of his manuscript aloud to him after he wrote one of his books, and that helped him to hear how it sounded so he could make his changes.  My wife Vicki and I decided to follow that same approach.  So she would read the draft aloud to me and we’d refine it, word by word.  Often, I remembered other things that were triggered by hearing the words read out loud, and I would dictate them on the spot.  All in all, the process was very rewarding and I hope very successful.

 What do you think people will find surprising about the book? 
Well, I’m not the best judge of that, but I talk about my feelings and I always complete my sentences – two things I’m told I haven’t always done that well in the past. 


Is there any news in the book? 
Again, I'm not the best judge.  I've never discussed Vietnam, Lyndon Johnson, and my brothers Jack and Bobby in this much depth.  I think people may be intrigued about what I have to say about my 1980 presidential campaign—about all that led up to it and the long battle that had to be waged afterward for progressive principles.  I’ve offered my perspectives on working with President Nixon, President Reagan, President Clinton, and several Bushes.  Believe it or not I met the first President Bush’s father—and the second President Bush’s grandfather, Senator Prescott Bush when I was in law school.  Then when I first got to the Senate, I actually served briefly with him.

Tell us about some of the discoveries you made in the course of this project? 
I mentioned that I've been taking notes for 50 years, but I thought I'd lost some of them, and I was amazed by what I found—a detailed account of campaigning for Jack across the country in 1960, including the stump speech I delivered with my handwritten notes scrawled on it.  It brought back such wonderful memories, and that speech was also proof of just how far we've come.  We were campaigning for Medicare then!  And federal funding for education.  We were also dealing with the challenge of electing the first Catholic president, and my notes reminded me just how tough it was to find the right way to talk about that issue with people.

What was the most difficult part of writing the book? 
It’s hard to relive painful memories, the losses and the tragedies.  But they’re an indelible part of my life.  And I wanted to tell the full story, candidly, so it’s all there.  What happened.  What I’ve learned. The people I’ve known.  What I believe, what I’ve seen, and what I feel. 

Everything? 
I’ve never dug this deep, and I couldn’t have done it if Vicki wasn’t there to encourage me. My generation wasn’t brought up to talk this personally, and she really helped me figure out how to do it in a way that was true to my values and to who I am, and I hope, interesting to readers.

Is there anything you’ve left out? 
There are a lot of myths about my family and me. I didn’t waste words in the book refuting myths.  I also didn’t write about things I didn’t know about personally.  I was very careful about telling my own story, rather than Jack’s story or Bobby’s story or my father’s story.  For example, a lot of people assume I knew everything about Jack’s presidency, but we were only together in Washington for one year, and I was a 30-year-old senator trying to learn my way. I’ve described what I know from my own perspective; the complete account is for the historians. My perspective of my family is that of a loving brother and son.  I knew them in a way that only a few people did, and that’s what I wanted to share with readers.  It’s honest and true and its mine.

This book was originally scheduled for publication in 2010. Did you accelerate work because of your illness? 
Sure, but we didn’t cut any corners.  Vicki and I have been through every word of this book multiple times.  It’s exactly the book I wanted it to be.  


Why did you decide to call it True Compass? 
Sailing has always been part of my life.  I have so many happy memories of times at sea, with family and friends.  And the phrase "true compass" is a good metaphor for how I’ve tried to live.
 
What’s the ultimate message of the book? 
Perseverance.  Stand up for what you believe, and always look forward with hope.