Kennedy: The Classic Biography

“A brilliant and essential document about the man, the President, and his times. In all the millions of words which have been written about the martyred President, this book must remain unique. . . . It is John F. Kennedy’s life, his personality, his thinking which informed his action and that action itself described with honest and candor which illuminate and enliven the crowded pages of this book. Sorensen has managed to portray Kennedy in realistic human terms and not as the hero of a myth. . . . It is the richness of detail, anecdotes, incidents, conversations, descriptions rather than any gossip or startling revelations which gives the book its compelling readability.”   — Los Angeles Times

The classic, intimate, and #1 national bestselling biography of JFK by his great advisor Ted Sorensen.

In January 1953, freshman senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts hired a twenty-four-year-old from Nebraska as his Number Two legislative assistant—on a trial basis. Despite the differences in their backgrounds, in the eleven years that followed Ted Sorensen became known as Kennedy's intellectual blood bank, top policy aide, and alter ego.

Sorensen knew Kennedy the man, the senator, the candidate, and the president as no other associate did. From his role as a legislative assistant to Kennedy's death in 1963, Sorensen was with him during the key crises and turning points—including the spectacular race for the vice presidency at the 1956 convention, the launching of Kennedy's presidential candidacy, the TV debates with Nixon, and election night at Hyannis Port. The first appointment made by the new president was to name Ted Sorensen his Special Counsel.

In Kennedy, Sorensen recounts failures as well as successes with surprising candor and objectivity. He reveals Kennedy's errors on the Bay of Pigs, and his attitudes toward the press, Congress, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Sorensen saw firsthand Kennedy's actions in the Cuban missile crisis, and the evolution of his beliefs on civil rights and arms control. First published in 1965 and reissued here with a new preface, Kennedy is an intimate biography of an extraordinary man, and one of the most important historical accounts of the twentieth century.

“"Thrilling. . . . Crammed with important detail . . . much of which had not been previously known. . . . It is a more revealing book than if President Kennedy had written it himself."”

&#8220Sorensen was so close to his chief cerebrally that this book . . . is the nearest we will have to the memoirs Kennedy intended to write himself.” —  New York Times Book Review&#8220Thrilling. . . . Crammed with important detail . . . much of which had not been previously known. . . . It is a more revealing book than if President Kennedy had written it himself.” — The Christian Science Monitor&#8220The authority of the true alter ego. . . . One feels that Sorensen’s Kennedy is a highly substitute for the book Kennedy was going to write—and possibly more candid and accurate than anything Kennedy might have written, with or withour his help, as an ex-President.” — The New Yorker

Ted Sorensen's most recent book is Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History . He lives in New York City with his wife, Gillian.

The classic, intimate, and magisterial biography of JFK In January 1953, freshman senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts hired a twenty-four-year-old from Nebraska as his Number Two legislative assistant--on a trial basis. Despite the differences in their backgrounds, in the eleven years that followed Sorensen became known as Kennedy's intellectual blood bank, top policy aide, and alter ego. Sorensen knew Kennedy the man, the senator, the candidate, and the president as no other associate did throughout these eleven years. He was with him during the key crises and turning points--including the spectacular race for the vice presidency at the 1956 convention, the launching of Kennedy's presi-dential candidacy, the speech to the Protestant clergy of Houston, the TV debates with Nixon, and election night at Hyannis Port. The first appointment that Kennedy made as a new president was Ted Sorensen as his Special Counsel. Kennedy is an account of this president's failures as well as successes, told with surprising candor and objectivity. Sorensen relates the role of the White House staff and evaluates Kennedy's relations with his Cabinet and other appointees, reveals Kennedy's errors on the Bay of Pigs and his attitudes toward the press, Congress, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and details his actions in the Cuban missile crises and the evolution of his beliefs on civil rights and arms control. Three months to the day after Dallas, Sorensen left the White House to write the account of those eleven years that only he could write. First published in 1965, Kennedy is an intimate biography of an extraordinary man, and one of the most important sources of history in this century.

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