Jeremy Thorpe (Abacus Books)


Michael Bloch - 2014
    When he became leader of the Liberal Party in 1967 at the age of just thirty-seven, he seemed destined for truly great things. But as his star steadily rose so his nemesis drew ever nearer: a time-bomb in the form of Norman Scott, a homosexual wastrel and sometime male model with whom Jeremy had formed an ill-advised relationship in the early 1960s. Scott's incessant boasts about their 'affair' became increasingly embarrassing, and eventually led to a bizarre murder plot to shut him up for good. Jeremy was acquitted of involvement but his career was in ruins.Michael Bloch's magisterial biography is not just a brilliant retelling of this amazing story; ten years in the making, it is also the definitive character study of one of the most fascinating figures in post-war British politics.

Eleanor: The Years Alone


Joseph P. Lash - 1972
    Lash picks up where Eleanor and Franklin ended, tracing Mrs. Roosevelt’s 17 years of life after FDR’s death in 1945. Combining meticulous research with riveting anecdote, he examines the humanitarian work that earned Eleanor the title of First Lady of the World.

True Compass: A Memoir


Edward M. Kennedy - 2009
    Kennedy tells his extraordinary personal story--of his legendary family, politics, and fifty years at the center of national events.TRUE COMPASSThe youngest of nine children born to Joseph P. Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, he came of age among siblings from whom much was expected. As a young man, he played a key role in the presidential campaign of his brother John F. Kennedy, recounted here in loving detail. In 1962 he was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he began a fascinating political education and became a legislator.In this historic memoir,Ted Kennedy takes us inside his family, re-creating life with his parents and brothers and explaining their profound impact on him. or the first time, he describes his heartbreak and years of struggle in the wake of their deaths. Through it all, he describes his work in the Senate on the major issues of our time--civil rights, Vietnam, Watergate, the quest for peace in Northern Ireland--and the cause of his life: improved health care for all Americans, a fight influenced by his own experiences in hospitals.His life has been marked by tragedy and perseverance, a love of family, and an abiding faith. There have been controversies, too, and Kennedy addresses them with unprecedented candor. At midlife, embattled and uncertain if he would ever fall in love again, he met the woman who changed his life, Victoria Reggie Kennedy. Facing a tough reelection campaign against an aggressive challenger named Mitt Romney, Kennedy found a new voice and began one of the great third acts in American politics, sponsoring major legislation, standing up for liberal principles, and making the pivotal endorsement of Barack Obama for president.Hundreds of books have been written about the Kennedys. TRUE COMPASS will endure as the definitive account from a member of America's most heralded family, an inspiring legacy to readers and to history, and a deeply moving story of a life like no other.

Jack & Lem: John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings: The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship


David Pitts - 2007
    Kennedy and Kirk Lemoyne Billings (aka "Lem"). Jack Kennedy and Lem Billings met at Choate and remained friends until the Dallas gunfire that ended Kennedy's life thirty years later. Featuring interviews with Ben Bradlee, Gore Vidal, Ted Sorenson, friends, family, and many others, award–winning journalist David Pitts begins the story with the early friendship between the men. Though Lem never held an official role in the Kennedy administration, his friendship and insight were much valued, so much so that he had his own room at the White House. This is the story of Jack and Lem and the climate for gays during he Kennedy era — the story of a great friendship that grew and survived against the odds.

The Kennedy Men: 1901-1963


Laurence Leamer - 2001
    The renowned biographer and New York Times bestselling author of The Kennedy Women returns with this first volume in a multigenerational history that will forever change the way America views its most famous family ...

My 21 Years in the White House


Alonzo Fields - 1960
    Fields (1900-1994) began his employment at the White House in 1931, and kept a journal of his meetings with the presidents and their families; he would also meet important people like Winston Churchill, Princess Elizabeth of England, Thomas Edison, John D. Rockefeller, presidential cabinet members, senators, representatives, and Supreme Court Justices. He would also witness presidential decision-making at critical times in American history -- the attack on Pearl Harbor, the death of Franklin Roosevelt, the desegregation of the military, and the outbreak of hostilities in Korea. As Fields often told his staff, “...remember that we are helping to make history. We have a small part ... but they can't do much here without us. They've got to eat, you know.” Included are sample menus prepared for visiting heads-of-state and foreign dignitaries.

Jackson


Max Byrd - 1997
       He became a legend during the War of 1812. He was a slave owner, land speculator, and Indian fighter. He stole another man’s wife, murdered men in duels, and ordered military executions. But Andrew Jackson was also an impassioned supporter of universal suffrage and an ardent believer in the will of the people. Here the story of our controversial seventh President is told from a variety of viewpoints, including that of a young writer named David Chase who discovers, on the eve of the presidential election, a secret that could change the future of the nation. Along the way, readers encounter such notable figures as John Quincy Adams, Aaron Burr, and Sam Houston, and bear witness to an America in transition—and a man as unpredictable as democracy itself.  “Max Byrd’s historical novels about the third and seventh presidents bring both men alive in ways that only a literary imagination can.”—George F. Will, The Washington Post “With Jackson, [Max] Byrd has vaulted . . . into the front rank of American historical novelists.”—The Wall Street Journal  “Vivid and compelling . . . a convincing and intriguing portrait of Jackson as he might have been.”—The Plain Dealer   “Full of action, emotion, and insight, Max Byrd’s Jackson deserves to stand with the finest works of historical fiction.”—San Francisco Chronicle “Grounded in excellent, detailed historical research, Byrd paints a rich, multilayered portrait.”—Chicago Tribune

Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter


Kate Clifford Larson - 2015
    The daughter they secreted away made all the difference.Joe and Rose Kennedy’s strikingly beautiful daughter Rosemary attended exclusive schools, was presented as a debutante to the Queen of England, and traveled the world with her high-spirited sisters. And yet, Rosemary was intellectually disabled — a secret fiercely guarded by her powerful and glamorous family.  Major new sources — Rose Kennedy’s diaries and correspondence, school and doctors' letters, and exclusive family interviews — bring Rosemary alive as a girl adored but left far behind by her competitive siblings. Kate Larson reveals both the sensitive care Rose and Joe gave to Rosemary and then — as the family’s standing reached an apex — the often desperate and duplicitous arrangements the Kennedys made to keep her away from home as she became increasingly intractable in her early twenties. Finally, Larson illuminates Joe’s decision to have Rosemary lobotomized at age twenty-three, and the family's complicity in keeping the secret.  Rosemary delivers a profoundly moving coda: JFK visited Rosemary for the first time while campaigning in the Midwest; she had been living isolated in a Wisconsin institution for nearly twenty years. Only then did the siblings understand what had happened to Rosemary and bring her home for loving family visits. It was a reckoning that inspired them to direct attention to the plight of the disabled, transforming the lives of millions.

Extraordinary Lives: The Art and Craft of American Biography


William Zinsser - 1986
    The result is a book rich in anecdote and in surprising new information about a variety of famous Americans. David McCullough takes us along on the exhilarating journey to Missouri to find "The Unexpected Harry Truman." Richard B. Sewall describes his twenty-year search for the elusive poet, Emily Dickinson. Paul C. Nagel tells us about "The Adams Women" - four generations of women he came to admire while writing his earlier biography of the Adams family. Ronald Steel, author of a much-honored biography of the nation's greatest journalist, recalls in "Living with Walter Lippman," how the life of the biographer can become entwined with that of his subject. Jean Strouse, on the trail of J. P. Morgan, discusses the fact that "there are two reasons why a man does anything, a good reason and a real reason." Robert A. Caro reveals the frustrations of trying to unearth the true facts about Lyndon Johnson, a man who went to great pains to conceal them. Together, these six biographers take us through a gallery of unique American lives - most of them moving, many of them startling, and all of them extraordinary.

Shock: The Healing Power of Electroconvulsive Therapy


Kitty Dukakis - 2006
     For more than twenty years, Kitty Dukakis battled severe depression with every medication and treatment available. But it wasn't until she tried electroconvulsive therapy- ECT-that she began getting her life back for good. Written with award-winning medical reporter Larry Tye, "Shock" is both the personal story of how ECT dramatically changed Kitty Dukakis's life as well as a captivating look at the science behind ECT, the controversy surrounding it, and the history of its intriguing rebirth in this country. "Shock" explores the stigma afflicting ECT-still a treatment that many hospitals do not administer-and debunks long-held misconceptions about how it is performed. Though some continue to view ECT as a dangerous, even barbaric, procedure, as this book explains there is no scientific evidence to suggest that ECT damages the brain. It can cause side effects like memory loss, but they generally are not far-reaching or long-lasting, especially when newer, lower-impact techniques are employed. In fact, the U.S. surgeon general and the National Institutes of Health agree that for severe depression ECT is safe, and often more effective than antidepressants or psychotherapy. An eye-opening and powerful book about one of the most contentious medical treatments in history, Shock demystifies ECT and brings to life-through Kitty Dukakis's moving account -its impressive capacity to heal. For the millions who suffer from depression, bipolar disorder, and other mental illnesses, it offers real information, practical guidance, and hope.

The Selling of the President


Joe McGinniss - 1969
    It introduces:Harry Treleaven, the first adman to suggest that issues bore voters, that image is what countsRoger Ailes, a PR man who coordinated the TV presentations that delivered the productFrank Shakespeare, the man behind the whole campaign, who, after eighteen years at CBS, cast the image that sold America a PresidentAnd the candidate, Richard Nixon himself—a politician running on television for the highest office in the landIn his introduction, Joe McGinniss discusses why—unfortunately—his classic book is as pertinent today to understanding our political culture as it was the year it was published.

And They Called It Camelot: A Novel of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis


Stephanie Marie Thornton - 2020
    Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy knows no other choice. With the eyes of the world watching, Jackie uses her effortless charm and keen intelligence to carve a place for herself among the men of history and weave a fairy tale for the American people, embodying a senator’s wife, a devoted mother, a First Lady—a queen in her own right. But all reigns must come to an end. Once JFK travels to Dallas and the clock ticks down those thousand days of magic in Camelot, Jackie is forced to pick up the ruined fragments of her life and forge herself into a new identity that is all her own, that of an American legend.

My War


Andy Rooney - 1995
    A first-hand account of one man's role in history, My War is a memoir from one of America's personalities. As a naive, young correspondent for The Stars and Stripes during World War II, Andy Rooney flew bomber missions, arrived in France during the D-Day invasion and crossed the Rhine with the Allied forces, traveled to Paris for the Liberation, and, as one of the first reporters into Buchenwald, witnessed the discovery of Hitler's concentration camps. Like so many of his generation, Rooney's life was changed forever by the war. Tom Brokaw featured Rooney's experiences in The Greatest Generation. Now, for the readers who would like to know the whole story, Rooney's own memoir, illustrated throughout with black-and-white photographs, is now available again in a hardcover edition.

Hell to Pay: The Unfolding Story of Hillary Rodham


Barbara Olson - 1999
    In Accomplice , Olson separates fact from fiction and shows us Hilllary's often disturbing complicity in her husband's affairs.

41: A Portrait of My Father


George W. Bush - 2014
    Bush, the 43rd President of the United States, has authored a personal biography of his father, George H. W. Bush, the 41st President.   Forty-three men have served as President of the United States. Countless books have been written about them. But never before has a President told the story of his father, another President, through his own eyes and in his own words. A unique and intimate biography, the book covers the entire scope of the elder President Bush’s life and career, including his service in the Pacific during World War II, his pioneering work in the Texas oil business, and his political rise as a Congressman, U.S. Representative to China and the United Nations, CIA Director, Vice President, and President.  The book shines new light on both the accomplished statesman and the warm, decent man known best by his family. In addition, George W. Bush discusses his father’s influence on him throughout his own life, from his childhood in West Texas to his early campaign trips with his father, and from his decision to go into politics to his own two-term Presidency.