Ted Kennedy Sells Memoirs For $8 Million

(AP)  The memoirs of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the youngest and last surviving brother of the America's most famous political siblings and for decades an eminent liberal statesman and legislator, have been acquired by an imprint of the Hachette Book Group USA.

Financial terms were not disclosed, but a publishing official with knowledge of the negotiations said the agreement was comparable to the $8 million Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton received for "Living History" and the $9 million former British Prime Minister Tony Blair will reportedly get for his planned memoir.

The New York Times reported that Kennedy received an advance of more than $8 million.

"I've been fortunate in my life to grow up in an extraordinary family and to have a front row seat at many key events in our nation's history," Kennedy, 75, said in a statement. "I hope my reflections can contribute to a deeper understanding of many events in the history of this great country and to a more in-depth picture of an American family."

Hachette's acquisition came after a six-day auction involving nine publishers. Kennedy was represented by Washington attorney Robert Barnett, whose other clients include Clinton and Tony Blair.

The Massachusetts Democrat - the youngest of nine children including John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Eunice Shriver - was first elected to the Senate in 1962, when he was voted in to fill the seat vacated by JFK, who had been elected president.

Ted Kennedy was just 30 at the time, barely old enough to legally have the job, and his greatest burden was living down the taunt of his Democratic primary opponent, Edward J. McCormack: "If your name was simply Edward Moore instead of Edward Moore Kennedy, your candidacy would be a joke."

Kennedy's achievements and troubles exceeded everyone's expectations. Brothers John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated, and personal scandal - most notably a 1969 accident in which a car he drove ran off a bridge, killing passenger Mary Jo Kopechne - was an obstacle to the younger Kennedy's own presidential ambitions.

But he also emerged as one of the Senate's most accomplished and eloquent legislators, respected even by Republicans for his knowledge and hard work, and for his role in passing bills on education, wages, health care, immigration and many other issues. Last year, he was easily elected to his eighth full term and has no plans to retire, according to Cutter.

The book, currently untitled and tentatively scheduled to come out in 2010, builds upon the oral history project that Kennedy has been working on through the Miller Center of the University of Virginia. The project, launched in 2004 and expected to last several years, will include interviews with the senator, family members, colleagues, journalists, foreign leaders and others.

For his memoir, Kennedy plans to use a co-author/researcher, still to be determined. A "significant" portion of the proceeds will be donated to charity, including the John F. Kennedy Library, where the senator's public and private papers will eventually be stored, according to Kennedy adviser Stephanie Cutter.

The book will be published by the Hachette imprint Twelve, founded two years ago by former Random House editor Jonathan Karp.

"The senator's book is not about the money," Karp told The Associated Press. "I think it's about telling a story that only he can tell. He's both seen history and he's made history. His perspective is unique, and it would be a tremendous loss if he did not put his experiences in writing."

Karp said that he and other Hachette officials went down to Washington last fall to meet with the senator at his home, where they talked in Kennedy's study, family pictures on the walls, books by Robert Caro and David McCullough on the shelves.

"He intends to be candid," Karp said. "He's a great raconteur and he talked so articulately and disarmingly about his childhood and some of his political experiences over the years that you got the sense that this is a man capable of captivating anyone with a story."

Kennedy's previous books include "My Senator and Me," a children's book told from the viewpoint of his dog, and "America Back on Track." He has been the subject of countless works and cooperated with one author, Adam Clymer, on a biography that came out in 1999.

This is not Hachette's first involvement with the Kennedy family. The company, the world's largest magazine publisher, was John F. Kennedy Jr.'s partner when he founded the political magazine, "George," in 1995. It folded in 2001, two years after his death in a plane crash.

[mudrose-2009]

Oh, did he include a chapter on Mary Jo titled "If I Did It"?

[iceman_1960]

RE: Post by mitchoncbs at 05:36 PM : Nov 27, 2007

The sworn testimony of those court documents was false.

Too much of the story makes no sense. There are a thousand details that don"t add up.

For example, Ted Kennedy claims that after swimming back to Edgartown, he wandered the streets of the town for a while.

A man with the most recognizable face in the state of Massachusetts supposedly wandered the streets, in soaking wet clothes, and nobody later recalled seeing him ? What are the odds of that ?

Too much just doesn"t make sense.

Iceman, not to be disrespectful, but you have the story wrong. Court documents will proove that Ted admitted driving and took a wrong turn....look at my previous posts, (past the spammer) and you will see. I took that from court documents.

[iceman_1960]

Please use "+report abuse" to petition CBS to add an IGNORE feature to these Comments sections, so that the spamming of "WestProphet" (and his own aliases) can be wiped off your screens.

[iceman_1960]

"Why would he have to leave when a cop showed up? His family owns the police in Massachusetts, they were the ones who protected him during the investigation.
Those concocted stories you refer to are what"s called sworn testimony."
- Posted by realpatriot1 at 09:30 AM : Nov 27, 2007

Kennedy was evidently having an affair with Mary Jo Kopechne. When the cop pulled up, Kennedy left the car (it was parked in a "Lover"s Lane") to avoid a scandal ruinous to his political hopes. Mary Jo was driving alone when the car went off the bridge.

Kennedy didn"t find out about Mary Jo Kopechne"s fatal accident until the next morning, when he then had to explain why she died in his car like that, with no one calling the police when the accident occurred.

Bill Kurtis" investigation is entirely conclusive -- point after point, and the timeline, all give the lie to the foolish story concocted later.

"Sworn testimony" has been falsely given many times in the history of politics. This was one such occasion.

[westprophet]

HOPE FOR AMERICA: PRESIDENT RON PAUL
RonPaul2008.com

-- No more meddling in other country''s political affairs
-- No more aggressive military actions overseas
-- No more torture prisons
-- No more pseudo-wars like the "War on Drugs"
-- No more IRS and unconstitutional income taxes
-- No more Federal Reserve (the group of private banks which owns our government)
-- No more erosion of Social Security to pay for militarization
-- No more U.N. (one world government) participation
-- No more NAFTA, CAFTA, WTO or GATT (globalist trade cartels)
-- No more North American Union (loss of U.S. sovereignty)
-- No more federal gun control laws
-- No more illegal aliens pouring-in over our country''s borders
-- No more illegal aliens allowed to roam freely in our streets
-- No more national ID cards (Real ID Act)
-- No more government invasion of your privacy
-- No more federal Laws which force you to take unwanted injections
-- No more federal Laws which are not authorized by The Constitution
-- No more federal erosion of State sovereignty
-- No more unlimited federal government

"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human liberty; it is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
- William Pitt

"The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home."
- James Madison

"When the people fear their government, you have tyranny. When the government fears the people, you have liberty."
- Thomas Jefferson

[eastprophet]

YOU LIVE IN INTERESTING TIMES
America is tipping way too far back in her easy chair. Something BIG is about to happen, and I predict this upcoming 2008 Presidential Election will be extremely pivotal. I''m not going to name any candidates. You probably already know who my favorite one is. But let me make my point absolutely clear: If you think times are boring, think again. If you think the future is predictable, think again. My advice to everyone who reads this is to be thoughtful. Trust only that wisdom which is your own. 90% of mainstream media in this country is controlled by fewer than 20 different organizations. Unfortunately, they, like the sold-out political ****** who pretend tp serve us in Washington, were bought and paid for by the military-industrial complex decades ago. Therefore, mainsteam media will paint pictures they want to paint, and people will open their minds to pictures they want to see. So, be skeptical. Be wise. Research issues and talking points on your own, and share what you learn with those you love. The future of your family tree may lay in the balance.

[northprophet]

YOU''RE A FROG IN A POT
My fellow Americans need to open their eyes to the fact that our Republic, along with The Constitution upon which it was founded, is being flushed-down the toilet by our nations'' bought and paid for politicians and media. While the Oligarchs warn and incite fear in the sheeple about the prospect of terrorism, they at the same time leave our borders wide open, and then conduct illegal wars overseas that do nothing but incite the terrorism which their Orwellian Laws like the Patriot Act and the John Warner Defense Authorization Act pretend to protect us from. Wake up America! It''s not about protecting you from terrorism, or Global Warming, or any of that other fear-mongering garbage the sold-out, mainstream media feeds you 24/7. It''s about feeding the bankers and the military industrial complex, and facilitating the global elite''s ability to ratchet-down control over the American people, placing us into a total control grid where they can surveille, track and control everywhere we go and everything we do. It''s the groundwork for tyranny. It''s the New World Order plan of Bush, Clinton, Edwards, McCain, Giuliani, et.al., being executed quite beautifully. You''re a frog in a pot: In order to cook a frog, you don''t throw him into a pot of boiling water. If you do, he''ll resist and jump-out. What you do instead is, you turn the heat-up REAL SLOW, and by the time the water is boiling, he won''t be able to jump out anymore, because it''s too late--he''s already doomed.

[southprophet]

ARE WE A NATION OF LAWS?
Consider the Patriot Act. The Law is 342 pages long, or 57,000 words, making it a bit longer than Dostoevsky''s "Notes from Underground" or, if you''re partial to pigs, about twice the size of Orwell''s "Animal Farm." The Patriot Act is the reigning champion of our government''s recent un-American activities. When it was first paraded before Congress and the Senate following the 9/11 attacks, few Members, other than Congressman, Ron Paul dared to vote against it. Most in Congress simply gave it their rubber-stamp of approval, without ever reading it. Why bother? It was, after all, named the "USA Patriot Act." It must be a good thing. Right? Now in effect, the Law wrecks a generation''s worth of constitutional protections against government snooping, legalizing police-state tactics in searches and seizures, criminalizing certain forms of speech and political activity, and opening the way for the mistreatment of foreigners in government custody and wholesale expulsions and imprisonment. It is a repugnant, unnecessary Law that goes against the very principles its name wrongly implies. Yet, it remains unchecked and unbalanced by public opinion, Lawmakers or the Courts. So, yes, we''re a nation of Laws. But the Laws aren''t much to speak of when they''re designed to hoodwink the public to win its docility. Neither is public responsibility much to speak of these days when its docility is secured with nothing more than a ploy-riddled play on the word "patriot."

[eastprophet]

CLINTON MAKES BUSH DICTATOR
With the full support of Senators Clinton, Obama and McCain, President Bush recently signed into Law the John Warner Defense Authorization Act, which, according to Senator Leahy (VT), will actually "encourage the President to declare Martial Law." It does so by revising the Insurrection Act, a Laws which limits the President''s ability to deploy troops within the United States. The Insurrection Act has historically, along with the Posse Comitatus Act, helped to enforce strict prohibitions on military involvement in domestic Law enforcement. With one cloaked swipe of his pen, Bush has now undone all of those prohibitions. The John Warner Defense Authorization Act, which was signed by the President in an unpublicized ceremony, allows the President to declare a "public emergency," suspend Congress; The Constitution; and to take control of state-based National Guard units without the consent of your Governor or local authorities, in order to "suppress public disorder." President Bush seized this unprecedented power on the very same day that he signed the equally odious Military Commissions Act. The two Laws compliment one another. One allows for torture and detention abroad of those who dissent and are stripped of their citizenship, while the other seeks to enforce acquiescence at home by allowing the President to order the military onto our streets in a domestic Law enforcement role, which is already being done. Vote for Liberty. Vote for Ron Paul.