Tuesday, April 16 @ 6:00 p.m., Reading Room
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For our April 2024 Book Club meeting, we will be reading the nonfiction title, Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter by Kate Clifford Larson:
They were the most prominent American family of the twentieth century. The daughter they secreted away made all the difference.
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. Major new sources — 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 profoundly 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.
Our meeting will be on Tuesday, April 16 at 6:00 p.m. in the Library’s Reading Room on the first floor. This meeting will be informal and there will be goodies for newcomers. Book Club members may start coming before closing to get situated in the Reading Room. Please knock on the front door to be let in. You must have a completed member form on file to be permitted in the building.
Reading should be done before the meeting so we can discuss the book, but you do not have to finish the book or even read it! We want this to be an accessible club and know that it can be hard to finish reading books for many reasons. If you prefer a digital or audio format (or a summary book), check our digital collections found at the top of this page for a copy.
If you are interested in becoming a Book Club member, please fill out our member form. You do not need to be a member of our library to join our book club, but if you are and would like for us to put the book on hold for you, be sure to include your library card number. You do not need to come to every meeting to retain membership but if you attend at least 6 meetings in a calendar year you’ll be entered into a giveaway for year-end prize pack! Once you’ve signed up, join our Facebook Group for more insider knowledge of the club.
We’ll see you April 16!
