To learn more about the life and work of Sen. Ted Kennedy, visit www.TedKennedy.org. Twelve Books released True Compass, Ted Kennedy's autobiography, on September 14. Visit the Twelve website and read a Q&A interview with Kennedy about writing the book. According to the publisher, the late U.S. Senator worked "valiantly to finish the book and make it the best it could be. As always, he was true to his word. The result is a great and inspiring legacy to readers everywhere, a case study in perseverance." Jonathan Karp, editor of the press, comments about Kennedy and their process of completing the memoir prior to his passing. An excerpt: "The greatest experience of my twenty years in the publishing business has been working with Senator Edward M. Kennedy on his long-awaited autobiography, True Compass, which Twelve will publish this fall. For the past two years, I’ve had the incredible opportunity of asking Senator Kennedy every question I could think of – and receiving answers that deepened my understanding of national politics and took me inside one of the most heralded families in America. His book will be a revelation, an international event, and a lasting contribution to American history. "Senator Kennedy has been keeping a personal journal through nearly 50 years of his public life, beginning with John F. Kennedy’s campaign for president in 1960. Five years ago, he began an oral history project at the Miller Center at the University of Virginia, where he began to address all aspects of his life – his family, his career in the Senate, and his view of the historic events of our time. Since deciding to write his memoirs, he has been working with collaborator Ron Powers, co-author of the #1 bestseller Flags of Our Fathers and author of Mark Twain: A Life, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. "I’ve read every word multiple times, and it is dazzling – a candid, heartfelt, and beautifully written account of an extraordinary life. I can’t wait to share it with you."
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Feature
Remembering Ted Kennedy
In high school in Miami Beach back in the early ‘70s, it didn’t take much for me to skip a math class.And when I did, you’d usually find me a couple blocks away on Lincoln Road at the bookstore.
Except for that time I ditched class to see Teddy Kennedy speak at what was then called The Miami Beach Auditor.
Somehow, I managed a seat in the third row. I was so close I could see the tiny beads of sweat form on his brow as he railed for and against the issues of the day.
In person, he was riveting, electrifying up at that podium.
Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) died at 77 on August 25, 2009 on the very day a copy of his memoir, True Compass, arrived at his house from his publisher.
Teddy never got to see it.
The only Kennedy to ever write a memoir, Teddy began writing his book two years ago, just months before he was diagnosed with brain cancer.
He’d been making notes for that book for more than 50 years.
For all of his 46 years in the senate, the privileged member of the wealthy Kennedy political dynasty was the champion of the underdog, and loved not only by his Democratic colleagues but by many Republicans whom he’d worked closely with on decades of bi-partisan legislation.
The Washington Post noted in an editorial that ran after Kennedy’s passing, “Throughout his career he stood by some of the country’s most neglected and abused people: minorities, immigrants, the poor and those lacking access to good health care, to name just some of them… His record shows the work of a committed, diligent legislator, and it earned the respect of those who disagreed with him as much as this loyalty of those who worked for and with him.”
It also earned him the honor of being considered the most effective legislator of the last 50 years, and one of the top five most effective in the history of the country.
He was called “The Lion of the Senate,” and The Boston Globe’s editorial after his death noted, “In a mea culpa speech in 1991, he said, ‘I recognize my own shortcomings, the faults in the conduct of my private life…and I am the one who must confront them.’ They were put to rest in a second marriage.
“But it wasn’t the flaws that made Kennedy the biggest target for conservative fundraisers… It was his power and commitment in the fights against poverty and for civil rights, education, health care. It was his willingness – no his insistence – in being a liberal when others wanted to make the L-word a badge of shame.”
In his memoir, Teddy Kennedy discusses his opposition to the war in Iraq: “Looking over my personal journals and the many speeches and briefing memos in my files, I am struck once again at how clear the march to disaster seemed to me at the time, and how brazenly the administration’s justifications departed from reality.”
He writes about his 1969 car accident that killed Mary Jo Kopechne: “Atonement is a process that never ends.”
Kennedy’s publisher, Jonathan Karp, and the senator’s sons, Patrick and Teddy, Jr., in promoting True Compass, appeared on CNN’s Larry King Live on September 13th.
“He did believe in redemption,” Teddy Jr. said.
“He spent his life trying to atone for this,” Karp added.
At Ted Kennedy’s memorial, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) said that while Teddy’s brothers, President John F. Kennedy inspired the country, and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy gave us hope, “Teddy changed America.”
One of his best friends, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), summed up Teddy Kennedy’s tremendous impact: “He leaves the earth a better place.”
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Nina L. Diamond is a journalist, essayist, and the author of Voices of Truth: Conversations with Scientists, Thinkers & Healers. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including Omni, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, The Chicago Tribune, and The Miami Herald.
Ms. Diamond was a writer and performer on Pandemonium, the National Public Radio (NPR) satirical humor program, for its entire run in Miami and select markets nationwide from 1984-1998. As an editor, she works frequently with other authors and journalists on both fiction and non-fiction.