08-10-2015, 12:36 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-10-2015, 12:52 PM by Joseph McBride.)
This new biography of Rosemary Kennedy, ROSEMARY: THE HIDDEN KENNEDY DAUGHTER, is superb. There is much that is new here and the book is a rich and sensitive
analysis of how the disabled have been treated through the decades and a revealing portrait of the
tragedy of Rosemary's situation. The book is powerfully written and deeply researched by Kate Clifford Larson. The author
does not mince words in criticism of how Rosemary was mistreated. But she
shows how some members of the Kennedy family rallied around her, especially Euniice Shriver. Eunice
was Rosemary's protector and champion all those years and was inspired by her to work for the disabled. We see how Rosemary's
example helped spur President Kennedy, Patrick Kennedy, and Teddy Kennedy
to also enlist in that cause with Eunice's prodding. John F. Kennedy is shown as one of the
family members who did not abandon Rosemary after his parents more or less abandoned her. This is the kind of saga that plays out in many American families -- including my own.
My mother, Marian Dunne McBride (vice chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party
and a longtime journalist) came up with the previously unreported story in 1960 that the long-mysterious Rosemary
was hidden away in a convent school in Wisconsin and, rather than leak it, helped
persuade the Kennedys to release the story themselves during the campaign. They did so with a brief
article in Time magazine that August. Eunice then wrote about Rosemary in depth for The Saturday Evening Post in 1962. This helped start getting the subject
out in the open and start breaking the fog of denial that still surrounds mental illness and disability in this country.
I was a volunteer worker in John F. Kennedy's 1960 Wisconsin president primary campaign. On the night of JFK's climactic
campaign rally on April 3, 1960 (it can be seen in the classic documentary film PRIMARY), I went with an old friend
of the Kennedy family and a secretary of the campaign, Dora Krueger, who told me that Eunice had confided in her that she had wanted to be president
but that women in the Kennedy family were not allowed to do so. Arguably
Eunice did as much as a president for our country. She is given due credit in this moving and beautiful and heartbreaking book. It benefits
from the insights and concerns of a woman author who explores the gender politics in the Kennedy family astutely
and along the way paints a clearer picture of Rose Kennedy than we've had before.
The timing of this biography with Patrick Kennedy's book about the family's alcoholism and addiction and other mental
problems-- A COMMON STRUGGLE: A PERSONAL JOURNEY THROUGH THE PAST AND FUTURE OF MENTAL ILLNESS
AND ADDICTION, written with Stephen Fried -- allows us two more detailed and authoritative inside views than we've had before into this family's problems. Patrick's brave book is causing a backlash from some family members. But Maria Shriver and Anthony Shriver are shown as being supportive in the efforts to tell these two stories that add depth
and human complexity to hitherto murky aspects of the family story. Patrick's book in particular discusses
the devastating effect on the family of JFK's and RFK's assassinations and how the latter, in
particular, was taboo. And how his father suffered anguish and PTSD over Bobby's death and the
responsibilities it threw upon him. Patrick's interview on 60 MINUTES was a powerfully moving pulling-back of some of the curtain. All this exploration of secrets and denial helps add to our understanding of why most of the Kennedys
(with the most notable exception of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.) have found it so hard to cope with the traumatic events of the assassinations, although of course there are many political considerations beyond the personal grief and fear the family has experienced.. -- Joseph McBride, author of INTO THE NIGHTMARE: MY SEARCH FOR THE KILLERS OF PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY AND OFFICER J. D. TIPPIT
analysis of how the disabled have been treated through the decades and a revealing portrait of the
tragedy of Rosemary's situation. The book is powerfully written and deeply researched by Kate Clifford Larson. The author
does not mince words in criticism of how Rosemary was mistreated. But she
shows how some members of the Kennedy family rallied around her, especially Euniice Shriver. Eunice
was Rosemary's protector and champion all those years and was inspired by her to work for the disabled. We see how Rosemary's
example helped spur President Kennedy, Patrick Kennedy, and Teddy Kennedy
to also enlist in that cause with Eunice's prodding. John F. Kennedy is shown as one of the
family members who did not abandon Rosemary after his parents more or less abandoned her. This is the kind of saga that plays out in many American families -- including my own.
My mother, Marian Dunne McBride (vice chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party
and a longtime journalist) came up with the previously unreported story in 1960 that the long-mysterious Rosemary
was hidden away in a convent school in Wisconsin and, rather than leak it, helped
persuade the Kennedys to release the story themselves during the campaign. They did so with a brief
article in Time magazine that August. Eunice then wrote about Rosemary in depth for The Saturday Evening Post in 1962. This helped start getting the subject
out in the open and start breaking the fog of denial that still surrounds mental illness and disability in this country.
I was a volunteer worker in John F. Kennedy's 1960 Wisconsin president primary campaign. On the night of JFK's climactic
campaign rally on April 3, 1960 (it can be seen in the classic documentary film PRIMARY), I went with an old friend
of the Kennedy family and a secretary of the campaign, Dora Krueger, who told me that Eunice had confided in her that she had wanted to be president
but that women in the Kennedy family were not allowed to do so. Arguably
Eunice did as much as a president for our country. She is given due credit in this moving and beautiful and heartbreaking book. It benefits
from the insights and concerns of a woman author who explores the gender politics in the Kennedy family astutely
and along the way paints a clearer picture of Rose Kennedy than we've had before.
The timing of this biography with Patrick Kennedy's book about the family's alcoholism and addiction and other mental
problems-- A COMMON STRUGGLE: A PERSONAL JOURNEY THROUGH THE PAST AND FUTURE OF MENTAL ILLNESS
AND ADDICTION, written with Stephen Fried -- allows us two more detailed and authoritative inside views than we've had before into this family's problems. Patrick's brave book is causing a backlash from some family members. But Maria Shriver and Anthony Shriver are shown as being supportive in the efforts to tell these two stories that add depth
and human complexity to hitherto murky aspects of the family story. Patrick's book in particular discusses
the devastating effect on the family of JFK's and RFK's assassinations and how the latter, in
particular, was taboo. And how his father suffered anguish and PTSD over Bobby's death and the
responsibilities it threw upon him. Patrick's interview on 60 MINUTES was a powerfully moving pulling-back of some of the curtain. All this exploration of secrets and denial helps add to our understanding of why most of the Kennedys
(with the most notable exception of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.) have found it so hard to cope with the traumatic events of the assassinations, although of course there are many political considerations beyond the personal grief and fear the family has experienced.. -- Joseph McBride, author of INTO THE NIGHTMARE: MY SEARCH FOR THE KILLERS OF PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY AND OFFICER J. D. TIPPIT