Publisher Fact Sheet The sweeping history of two immigrant families & the marriage that brought them together.

In its drama and scope, Doris Kearns Goodwin's The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys is one of the richest works of biography in the last decade. From the wintry day in 1863 when John Francis Fitzgerald was baptized, through the memorable moment ninety-eight years later when his grandson and namesake John Fitzgerald Kennedy was inaugurated as President of the United States, the author brings us every colorful inch of this unique American tapestry. Each character emerges unmistakenly, with the clarity and complexity of personal recollection: "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, the mayor of Boston and founder of his dynasty; his independent and shrewdly political daughter, Rose, and her husband, the cunning, manipulative Joseph P. Kennedy; finally, the "Golden trio" of Kennedy children--Joe Jr., Kathleen, and Jack--whose promise was eclipsed by the greater power of fate. With unprecedented access to the Kennedy family and to decades of private papers, Doris Kearns Goodwin has crafted a singular work of American history: It is at once the story of an era, of the immigrant experience, and--most of all--of two families, whose ambitions propelled them to unrivaled power and whose passions nearly destroyed them.

Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Pulitzer Prize–winning classic about the relationship between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt, and how it shaped the nation while steering it through the Great Depression and the outset of World War II. With an extraordinary collection of details, Goodwin masterfully weaves together a striking number of story lines—Eleanor and Franklin’s marriage and remarkable partnership, Eleanor’s life as First Lady, and FDR’s White House and its impact on America as well as on a world at war. Goodwin effectively melds these details and stories into an unforgettable and intimate portrait of Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt and of the time during which a new, modern America was born.

In its drama and scope, this number one bestseller about two families--whose ambitions propelled them to unprecedented power and whose passions nearly destroyed them--is one of the richest works of biography in the last decade. "Rarely has popular history rung so authentic".--The New York Times. First time in trade paper. Photographs.

"A FRESH AND UNVARNISHED PORTRAIT OF A FASCINATING, TALENTED, AND DEEPLY FLAWED FAMILY." —Boston Herald Laurence Leamer was granted unheralded access to private Kennedy papers, and he interviewed family and old friends, many of whom had never been interviewed before, for this incredible portrait of the women in America’s "royal family." From Bridget Murphy, the foremother who touched shore at East Boston in 1849, to the intelligent, independent Kennedy women of today, Laurence Leamer tells their unforgettable stories. Here are the private thoughts of Kathleen, the flirtatious debutante in prewar England . . . the truth behind Joe Kennedy’s insistence that his mildly retarded daughter, Rosemary, be lobotomized . . . the real story behind Joan and Ted’s whirlwind romance . . . Jackie’s desire for a divorce from JFK in the 1950s . . . Pat Lawford’s disastrous Hollywood marriage . . . how Caroline discovered her cousin David’s death by overdose, and more. Tough enough to withstand the unimaginable, these Kennedy women soldier on in the name of their extraordinary family and what they believe is right. "MASTERFUL . . . AN ENDLESSLY FASCINATING READ . . . A wealth of beautifully rendered social detail, at times reading like a realist novel by Edith Wharton . . . [A] page-turner from start to finish." —The Dallas Morning News

Death was merciful to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, for it spared her a parent's worst nightmare: the loss of a child. But if Jackie had lived to see her son, JFK Jr., perish in a plane crash on his way to his cousin's wedding, she would have been doubly horrified by the familiar pattern in the tragedy. Once again, on a day that should have been full of joy and celebration, America's first family was struck by the Kennedy Curse. In this probing expose, renowned Kennedy biographer Edward Klein--a bestselling author and journalist personally acquainted with many members of the Kennedy family--unravels one of the great mysteries of our time and explains why the Kennedys have been subjected to such a mind-boggling chain of calamities. Drawing upon scores of interviews with people who have never spoken out before, troves of private documents, archives in Ireland and America, and private conversations with Jackie, Klein explores the underlying pattern that governs the Kennedy Curse. The reader is treated to penetrating portraits of the Irish immigrant Patrick Kennedy; Rose Kennedy's father, "Honey Fitz"; the dynasty's founding father Joe Kennedy and his ill-fated daughter Kathleen, President Kennedy, accused rapist William Kennedy Smith, and the star-crossed lovers, JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette. Each of the seven profiles demonstrates the basic premise of this book: The Kennedy Curse is the result of the destructive collision between the Kennedy's fantasy of omnipotence-an unremitting desire to get away with things that others cannot-and the cold, hard realities of life.

“Here is that rare thing: an untold chapter in the Kennedy saga. . .Compelling and illuminating.”—Jon Meacham Based on genealogical breakthroughs and previously unreleased records, this is the first book to explore the inspiring story of the poor Irish refugee couple who escaped famine; created a life together in a city hostile to Irish, immigrants, and Catholics; and launched the Kennedy dynasty in America. Their Irish ancestry was a hallmark of the Kennedys’ initial political profile, as JFK leveraged his working-class roots to connect with blue-collar voters. Today, we remember this iconic American family as the vanguard of wealth, power, and style rather than as the descendants of poor immigrants. Here at last, we meet the first American Kennedys, Patrick and Bridget, who arrived as many thousands of others did following the Great Famine—penniless and hungry. Less than a decade after their marriage in Boston, Patrick’s sudden death left Bridget to raise their children single-handedly. Her rise from housemaid to shop owner in the face of rampant poverty and discrimination kept her family intact, allowing her only son P.J. to become a successful saloon owner and businessman. P.J. went on to become the first American Kennedy elected to public office—the first of many. Written by the grandson of an Irish immigrant couple and based on first-ever access to P.J. Kennedy’s private papers, The First Kennedys is a story of sacrifice and survival, resistance and reinvention: an American story.