I would first like to acknowledge my colleagues at Grand Central Publishing, my home for the last fourteen years. It’s rare these days for an author to remain with the same publisher for such a long time, and when it happens it’s usually the result of shared respect and admiration. The fine people at Grand Central have always made it possible for me to do what I must in order to complete a book project, no matter how many years it takes for that to occur. In fact, an author could not ask for a better and more nurturing environment than the one I have been so fortunate to have at Grand Central. None of my books for Grand Central—and this is my sixth, counting back to the days when the company was known as Warner Books—would be possible, though, without the loyal friendship of my publisher, Jamie Raab. She is not only a very smart publisher but a terrific editor as well. And patient, too, as is necessary sometimes when shepherding projects such as this one which take years to come to fruition. I would like to also thank Jamie’s very capable assistant, Sharon Krassney, who always goes the extra mile for me.
I was so happy to have worked once again with the very capable Frances Jalet-Miller as my editor on this book. The kind of trust an author and editor share is sacred, and when I learned that Frances would be able to work with me again on this book—as she did with The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe—I was very happy. I would like to thank her for the many hours she invested in this project. We had fun, too!
I would also like to thank my managing editor, Bob Castillo, for his fine work on After Camelot. Bob has worked on all of my books since the year 2000 and I love the way we function together. Additionally, I would like to thank Evan Boorstyn in publicity. Thanks to Anne Twomey for her excellent cover design. And I would like to thank Claire Brown in art, Sara Weiss in editorial, and Tom Whatley and Giraud Lorber in production. A special thanks to my copy editor, Roland Ottewell, for a job very well done on yet another one of my books.
I would also like to acknowledge Maureen Mahon Egen, former president of Warner Books, who was my editor on Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot. The standard she set with the tone of that book was one I tried to follow in After Camelot. I will always be indebted to her.
Thanks to John Pelosi and the staff of Wolf, Effron & Spates for their legal review of this work, which was thorough and much appreciated.
I would have to say that After Camelot—my seventeenth book—was my most challenging work, because unlike most of my books, which have been about the life of one person—Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, etc.—this one is about an entire family of complex, fascinating, and sometimes troubled personalities. Though they are a political family, I don’t necessarily view this as a political book. My goal with this work was to consider the family dynamics behind the Kennedy image, to come to some understanding of who these people were—are—in relation to one another, and then tell their story in as objective and balanced a way as possible. For me, one of the most interesting aspects about the actual research for this book is that it spanned so many years. Much of the material utilized in this book was gathered in preparation for books I have done over the years that were related to this particular subject matter, such as Sinatra: A Complete Life; Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot; and The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe. I have found that, as a biographer, if one sticks around long enough, research from one book to another will usually come in handy once again. To that end, I would like to thank Maryanne Reed for helping me pull taped interviews and transcripts from so many years gone by and with so many people who are now deceased. This was not an easy task, but she did an incredible job and I am indebted to her for it.
I must also acknowledge my domestic agent, Mitch Douglas. Mitch and I have been together for fifteen years—that’s a great partnership! He always does his best to make sure my needs as an author are met, and he’s a great friend as well. So I want to thank him with all my heart.
Also, I would like to acknowledge my foreign agent, Dorie Simmonds of the Dorie Simmonds Agency in London. Again, we go back fifteen years, at least! Maybe more. I have lost track! Dorie is a terrific agent and also a great friend. It’s a pleasure working with her.
I am very fortunate to have been associated with the same private investigator and chief researcher, Cathy Griffin, for more than twenty years. Cathy has worked on every New York Times best seller I have ever written—ten at my last count—and has always done an incredible job of not only tracking down people who have never before been interviewed, but also convincing them to talk. This isn’t always easy. Cathy conducted scores of interviews for this book with people who have never before told their stories. I want to thank her for always coming through for me, as she certainly did with this new Kennedy family history.
Marcus Edwards also conducted many interviews for this book as well as for Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot, and his assistance has always been greatly appreciated. Also, Jayne Edwards-Smith conducted certain interviews and also spent many long hours transcribing tapes, which was an invaluable service to me.
Thank you, also, to Jane Maxwell, a terrific pop culture historian who allowed me to have access to all of her notes and files having to do with the Kennedys.
I would like to thank Juliette Burgonde, Cloe Basiline, Maxime Rhiette, and especially Mary Whitaker in London, who assisted with the U.K. research. As always, Marybeth Evans in London did a terrific job at the Manchester Central Library, reviewing reams of documents for me and pointing me to exactly those I needed for this book. Thanks also to Suzalie Rose, who did research for me in libraries in Paris. She and Carl Mathers were invaluable to the After Camelot project.
I would like to acknowledge the late Kennedy historian Lester David. For a while, we were with the same publisher, Carol Publishing. Mr. David wrote many fine books about the Kennedys and shared with me a good number of very important sources. I would like to thank him for transcripts of his interviews with Joan Kennedy, Ethel Kennedy, Sargent Shriver, David Kennedy, LeMoyne Billings, Jean Kennedy Smith, and Stephen Smith, all of which I utilized in this volume.
Also, I have to acknowledge the late Barbara Gibson, who gave me so many hours of interview time over the years. As Rose Kennedy’s personal secretary, she was privy to the inner workings of the Kennedy family, and she shared her memories with me very openly. Also the late Leah Mason, who was one of Ethel Kennedy’s assistants, granted me many interviews over the years, and I appreciate her help as well. Moreover, Noelle Bombardier, also one of Ethel Kennedy’s assistants, spent many hours with Cathy Griffin going over her memories for this book, and I appreciate her as well.
Thanks to Dale Manesis for all of his help with the vast collection of Kennedy memorabilia that I would never have otherwise had access to.
Thanks also to Dun Gifford, Edward Larrabee Barnes, Jacques Lowe, John Carl Warnecke, Hugh Sidey, Pierre Salinger, Joan Braden, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Ted Sorenson, Jack Valenti, Roswell Gilpatric, and Senator George Smathers; all are now deceased, but their memories live on in this book.
My personal copy editor James Pinkston has worked with me on my last six books. He reviews absolutely everything I write long before anyone at Grand Central ever sees it—and thank goodness for that! Jim’s mandate has to do with accuracy as well as grammar, sentence structure, and storytelling, and when it comes to a book such as After Camelot where so many stories intersect, attaining that goal seemed somehow more important than ever. He did a lot more for me on this book than I can even detail here, and his work was amazing. I am indebted to him.
I must also thank the many authors, historians, and researchers in the Boston and Washington areas—too many to note here, but all have received personal letters of gratitude from me—who spent literally years going through all hundreds of archives and manuscripts at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, narrowing them down and then making them available to me for After Camelot.
GENERAL RESEARCH
This book would not have been possible without the assistance of
so many organizations that provided me with articles, documents, audio interviews, video interviews, transcripts, and other material that was either utilized directly in After Camelot or just for purposes of background, including the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library, the Robert F. Kennedy Library, and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library. I would like to acknowledge Linda M. Seelke, the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library’s archivist, for her dedication to her work and for her assistance to me and my researchers. As well as Ms. Seelke, I would like to thank Harry J. Middleton, director of the library, for his help in many ways, and also for the personal interview he granted to Cathy Griffin on September 28, 1998. My thanks also go to Tina Houston, the supervisory archivist. Also a special thanks to Matthew Hanson, Deirdre Doughty, Mollie McDonnold, and Kate Bronstad. I urge any researcher working on a book involving President Lyndon Johnson even tangentially to contact the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library in Austin, Texas, for they will make your work much easier.
I would also like to thank Lady Bird Johnson’s personal assistant, Shirley James.
Thanks to Maryrose Grossman, Nadia Dixson, and Kyoko Yamamoto at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.
I would also like to express my gratitude to the following institutions:
American Academy of Dramatic Arts; American Film Institute Library; Associated Press Office (New York); Bancroft Library (University of California, Berkeley); Lincoln Center, New York; Boston Herald Archives; Beverly Hills Library; University of California, Los Angeles; Corbis-Gamma/Liaison; Ernest Lehman Collection at USC; Glendale Central Public Library; Hedda Hopper Collection in the Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills; Lincoln Center Library of the Performing Arts; Kobal Collection; Los Angeles Times; Los Angeles Public Library; Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; Museum of Broadcasting, New York; the former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio archives, now part of the Turner Entertainment Group, Los Angeles; Museum of the Film; National Archives and Library of Congress; New York City Municipal Archives; New York University Library; New York Daily News; New York Post; New York Times; Occidental College, Eagle Rock, California; Philadelphia Public Library; Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News; Time-Life Archives and Library, New York; Universal Collection at the University of Southern California; University of Southern California; and, finally, Rex Features.
ORAL HISTORIES
I could not have written After Camelot without utilizing the many oral histories provided by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. A great deal of material has been archived—hundreds of thousands of pages, in fact—and one has to go through all of it to find the fascinating nuggets. I remember the days when one would have to sit in the library for weeks or months on end looking for just the right oral history—in fact, that was the case with the research for much of this book! But now, amazingly enough, a lot of that material can be found online at http://www.jfklibrary.org.
My thanks to the following staff members of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library who assisted me and my researchers with oral histories: William Johnson, Ron Whealon, June Payne, Maura Porter, Susan D’Entrement, Kyoko Yamamoto, Allen Goodrich, and James Hill.
Also, I would like to mention David Powers, former special assistant to President John F. Kennedy, the first curator of the JFK Library. Mr. Powers, always the Kennedy loyalist, was extremely reluctant to speak to me for my book Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot back in the 1990s. However, he did fill out two lengthy questionnaires, and then finally submitted to a follow-up telephone interview. No mention of the Kennedy Library is complete without a nod to Mr. Powers, who died in April 1998 at the age of eighty-five.
I am also grateful to Marianne Masterson, Leanne Johnson, and Doug Anderson for assisting me in the reading and analyzing of these many transcripts.
It would be impossible—and impractical, given space limitations—to cite paragraph by paragraph how these oral histories were used; they were that important in the general shaping of this work. However, anyone interested in reading the oral histories should avail him- or herself of that opportunity by contacting the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library in Boston.
Oral histories of the following were in some way utilized in After Camelot, whether as quotes or for background purposes:
Joseph Alsop, journalist, author, Kennedy friend and associate; Janet Lee Auchincloss, Jackie’s mother; Isaac Avery, White House carpenter; Letitia Baldrige, White House social secretary; Joanne Barhoza, waitress at Kennedy home, Hyannis Port; Albert Wesley “Wes” Barthelmes, press secretary to Robert F. Kennedy; Charles Bartlett, journalist, friend of President Kennedy; Kirk LeMoyne “Lem” Billings, Kennedy family friend and associate; Edmund Pat Brown, governor of California (interview conducted by the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library); Traphes L. Bryant, White House electrician; McGeorge Bundy, special assistant to the president for national security affairs; Kenneth Burke, White House policeman; the Reverend John Cavanaugh, Kennedy family friend, associate, Roman Catholic priest, University of Notre Dame; Peter Cronin, reporter, United Press International; Cardinal Richard Cushing, Roman Catholic archbishop of Boston; Angier Biddle Duke, chief of protocol, White House and State Department; Frederick Dutton, special assistant to President Kennedy; John English, New York political figure, political aide to Robert F. Kennedy (interview conducted for the RFK Oral History Project); Paul B. Fay Jr., friend of President Kennedy and undersecretary of the Navy; Edward Folliard, journalist, Washington Post; Elizabeth Gatov (interview conducted by the Women in Politics Oral History Project, University of California, Berkeley); Dun Gifford, legislative assistant to Senator Edward M. Kennedy, national presidential campaign assistant to Robert F. Kennedy, staff member, secretary’s office, Department of Housing and Urban Development (interview conducted for the RFK Oral History Project); Roswell Gilpatrick, deputy secretary of defense; John Glenn, Project Mercury astronaut; Josephine Grennan, Irish cousin of John F. Kennedy; Michael Gretchen, West Vir-ginia labor leader; Charles E. Guggenheim, film producer, political media consultant for Robert Kennedy’s Senate campaign and presidential campaign, producer of Robert Kennedy Remembered (1968) (interview conducted for the RFK Oral History Project); Edwin O. Guthman, editor, Seattle Times, director of public information, Department of Justice, press assistant to Robert F. Kennedy; Milton Gwirtzman, presidential adviser, speechwriter, Robert Kennedy’s Senate campaign, director of public affairs, Robert Kennedy’s presidential campaign, coauthor (with William vanden Heuvel) of On His Own: RFK, 1964–1968 (interview conducted for the RFK Oral History Project); Andrew J. Hatcher, assistant press secretary to John F. Kennedy; Louella Hennessey, Kennedy family nurse; Jacqueline (Provost) Hirsh, French-language instructor to President Kennedy’s children (1966); John Jay Hooker, member, John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign staff; Claude E. Hooten, member, John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign staff; Oscar L. Huber, Roman Catholic priest who administered last rites to President Kennedy in Dallas; Hubert H. Humphrey, vice president of the United States, presidential candidate (interview conducted for the RFK Oral History Project and also by the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library); Rafer Johnson, friend and aide to Robert F. Kennedy (interview conducted for the RFK Oral History Project); Joseph J. Karitas, White House painter; Nicholas Katzenbach (interview conducted for the RFK Oral History Project); Robert Francis Kennedy, brother of President Kennedy, attorney general of the United States, senator from New York; Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, wife of Joseph P. Kennedy, mother of President Kennedy (interview conducted by the Herbert Hoover Library Foundation); Laura Bergquist Kriebel, journalist, Look (interview conducted for the RFK Oral History Project); John H. Knowles, classmate of Robert F. Kennedy, Harvard College, general director, Massachusetts General Hospital (1962–72) (interview conducted for the RFK Oral History Project); Arthur Krock, journalist, New York Times, Kennedy family associate; Peter Lawford, actor, brother-in-law of President Kennedy (edited draft transcript); Gould Lincoln, journalist, editor,
Washington Star; Torbert MacDonald (Hart), roommate of John F. Kennedy at Harvard, representative from Massachusetts; Frank Mankiewicz, press secretary to Robert F. Kennedy (interview conducted for the RFK Oral History Project); Esther Newberg, staff assistant to Robert F. Kennedy (interview conducted for the RFK Oral History Project); Kenneth O’Donnell, special assistant to the president (interview conducted by the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library); Andrew Oehmann, executive assistant to the attorney general (interview conducted for the RFK Oral History Project); Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (interview conducted by the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, 1974); Pierre Salinger, press secretary to John F. Kennedy (interview conducted for the RFK Oral History Project); John L. Seigenthaler, reporter, editor, the Nashville Tennessean, aide to Robert E Kennedy; Maud Shaw, Kennedy family governess; Eunice Kennedy Shriver, sister of President Kennedy, executive vice president, Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation; Sargent R. Shriver, director, Businessmen for Kennedy, director, Civil Rights Division, Democratic National Committee, director, Farmers for Kennedy; Hugh Sidey, journalist, Time, Life; George Smathers, senator from Florida (interview conducted by the U.S. Senate Historical Office); Theodore C. Sorensen, staff assistant, speechwriter to Senator John F. Kennedy, special counsel to the president; Charles Spalding, Kennedy friend and campaign aide; Stanley Tretick, photographer, United Press International, Look; Jack Valenti, special assistant to Lyndon Baines Johnson; Sandy Vanocur, journalist, NBC News (interview conducted for the RFK Oral History Project); Sue Mortensen Vogelsinger, secretary to John F. Kennedy; William Walton, artist, friend of Robert Kennedy, coordinator of Robert Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign; Ernest Warren, reporter, Associated Press.
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