Description |
302 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm |
Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-282) and index. |
Contents |
A home birth -- The making of a mother -- Slipping behind -- Five schools -- Brief haven in England -- War on the Kennedy home front -- November 1941 -- Rosemary gone -- Rosemary made the difference. |
Summary |
The revelatory, poignant story of Rosemary Kennedy, the eldest and eventually secreted-away Kennedy daughter, and how her life transformed her family, its women especially, and an entire nation. |
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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. 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 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. |
Subject |
Kennedy, Rosemary, 1918-2005.
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Intellectual disability.
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People with mental disabilities -- United States -- Biography.
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Kennedy, Rosemary, 1918-2005.
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Kennedy family.
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Intellectual Disability -- United States -- Biography.
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Family Relations -- United States -- Biography.
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History, 20th Century -- United States -- Biography.
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Institutionalization -- United States -- Biography.
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Persons with Mental Disabilities -- United States -- Biography.
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Psychosurgery -- United States -- Biography.
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Frontal lobotomy -- Case studies.
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FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS / Learning Disabilities.
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Kennedy, Rosemary, 1918-2005. (OCoLC)fst01926528
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Genre/Form |
Biographies. (OCoLC)fst01919896
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Biographies.
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ISBN |
9780547250250 (hardcover) |
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0547250258 (hardcover) |
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9780547617954 |
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054761795X |
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