Edward M. ("Ted") Kennedy was first elected as a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts in 1962, after playing a key role in his brother John's presidential campaign. "In 2004 he began interviews at the Miller Center of the Univ. of Virginia for an oral history project about his life. Since then he has drawn from his fifty years of contemporaneous notes from personal diaries and worked closely on this book with ... Ron Powers." -- dust jacket. In his revealing autobiography, Kennedy discusses his distinguished career, his family and personal relationships, and the tragedies that have befallen his family over the many years.

The torch -- Family : safe harbor -- No crying in this house -- Wartime London -- Boarding school boy -- The Harvard screwup -- Brotherhood : Kennedy for President -- Becoming a politician -- The New Frontier -- Drinks with the Senator -- 1963 -- Falling to earth -- Thunder -- Bobby -- On my own : the shock of silence -- The hospital -- Nixonian radicals -- Backlash in Boston -- Sailing against the wind -- The Reagan years -- The family business -- Renewal : the woman who changed my life -- Campaigning for political survival -- The Clinton years -- The living Rose -- Senator -- Perseverance.