Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Teddy To Tell

It's just been announced that Senator Edward M. Kennedy's autobiography will be published by Hachette Book Group in 2010.
If Teddy is even reasonably candid you've got to figure this will be a major bestseller. In fact, it has the potential to be mammoth. So many books have been written about so many Kennedys (one of the best of them being "The Kennedys" by Collier and Horowitz) that you would think we'd be satiated. But this is different. This will be from the The Survivor -- the man who was there and who witnessed it all closeup. Whatever you may feel about Teddy he has certainly known the highs and the lows and it's fair to say he's been through hell over the course of his 75 years. Maybe he'll give us some insight as to where and how he got the strength to carry on.
Still, I'm not sure I'd agree with historian Douglas Brinkley who has called Kennedy "probably the most durable and interesting American politician that's had a sustained career, decade after decade, since Franklin Roosevelt."
Sorry, but I'm just not terribly comfortable putting Teddy and FDR on the same plain, regardless of the criteria.

2 comments:

TRIALGIRL said...

I would be more impressed with Teddy if he donated a portion of that whopping advance to charity

Dan Cirucci said...

As far as I can tell this is as far as Teddy is willing to go: "Kennedy will donate his private and public papers to the John F. Kennedy Library and will use a portion of the book's proceeds to pay for the processing, preservation, and digitalization of those papers, Cutter said." Supposedly Teddy is getting more than EIGHT MILLION for this book.