Hot Off the Press

The Dirt from Kennedy's Memoir

Senator's book hits book stores Monday.

True Compass, Ted Kennedy’s posthumous memoir, was released Monday and the book is chock full of political and Kennedy lore. “My own life has always been inseparable from that of my own family,” Kennedy wrote. “My story is their story, and theirs is mine.” Politico has a comprehensive wrap of excerpts. We learn about how his hard-driving father challenged Teddy to live a serious life—and how he made him throw out his car horn, which made the sound of a cow’s moo. Teddy recounts how he lost a tooth in his first college football game and how his mother asked Khrushchev for a signed book during the height of the Cuban missile crisis. Kennedy also discusses the death of Mary Jo Kopechne at Chappaquiddick: “That night on Chappaquiddick Island ended in a horrible tragedy that haunts me every day of my life. I had suffered sudden and violent loss far too many times, but this night was different. This night I was responsible. It was an accident, but I was responsible….”