Kick Kennedy: The Charmed Life and Tragic Death of the Favorite Kennedy Daughter

Kathleen “Kick” Kennedy was the incandescent life-force of the fabled Kennedy family, her father’s acknowledged “favorite of all the children” and her brother Jack’s “psychological twin.” She was the Kennedy of Kennedys, sure of her privilege, magnetically charming and somehow not quite like anyone else on whatever stage she happened to grace.

The daughter of the American ambassador to the Court of St James’s, Kick swept into Britain’s aristocracy like a fresh wind on a sweltering summer day. In a decaying world where everything was based on stultifying sameness and similarity, she was gloriously, exhilaratingly different. Kick was the girl whom all the boys fell in love with, the girl who remained painfully out of reach for most of them.

To Kick, everything about this life was fun and amusing—until suddenly it was not. For this is also a story of how a girl like Kick, a girl who had everything, a girl who seemed made for happiness, confronted crushing sadness. Willing to pay the price for choosing the love she wanted, she would have to face the consequences of forsaking much that was dear to her.

Bestselling and award-winning biographer Barbara Leaming draws on her unique access to firsthand accounts, extensive conversations with many of the key players, and previously-unseen sources to transport us to another world, one of immense wealth, arcane rituals and rules, glamour and tragedy, that has now disappeared forever. It was a world of dukes and duchesses, of grand houses, of country house weekends, and of wild rich boys. But it was also a world of blood and war, and of immeasurable loss.

It was a time of complete upheaval, as reflected in the life of this most unlikely and unforgettable central character. Kick Kennedy reveals her story, that of a young girl learning about love, sex, and death—and doing it all at warp speed as the world races toward war and then reels in the war’s chaotic aftermath. This is the coming-of-age story of the female star of the Kennedy family, and ultimately a tragic, romantic story that will break your heart.

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ReviewPraise for Kick Kennedy

"Biographer Leaming candidly demystifies the life of one of the least-known Kennedys and vividly illuminates the complex world of British aristocracy." ―Booklist

“The fascinating, little-known story of an unforgettable woman…Riveting.” ―Examiner.com

“Barbara Leaming evokes the luminous spirit of Kick Kennedy" ―Vanity Fair

"The age of Downton Abbey offers fresh context for this story of American royalty and its more tradition-minded British counterpart." -Kirkus Reviews

From the AuthorFrom the Author:

Why I wrote Kick Kennedy: The Charmed Life and Tragic Death of the Favorite Kennedy Daughter:

Kick Kennedy is a fascinating, complicated character.  But while her story is a riveting  personal drama, it is an important piece of history as well.  Most unexpectedly, the story of Kick's life between the ages of 18 and 28  affords us a way into a normally closed world, the world of the British aristocracy, which during those years was a world in tumultuous upheaval.

When Kick arrived in England and fell in love with the young man who was heir to one of England's great Protestant families, the aristocracy was in the process of losing the political power and influence it had wielded for centuries.  

To tell Kick's story--a story of love and war, of ambition and terrible loss--was also to have the extraordinary opportunity to tell the story of that moment in history in a very intimate way.

The book I've written, therefore, is not the typical Kennedy story--most decidedly not--though it is most surely also an important part of that family's history too.  It is a story that takes place largely in Great Britain between the years 1938 and 1948 as war approaches and then changes everything forever.

Writing this book was a great adventure.  I love doing archival research, and to write Kick Kennedy I worked in public and private archives on two continents.  I've worked with enormous quantities of recently released materials by and about Kick and her world.  And in addition to the letters, diaries, and scrapbooks held in public archives, I was also generously given access to important materials still held in private hands.  But these papers were only part of what made telling this story possible.  For, particularly with Kick's own letters and diaries, it is crucially important to understand that this is a case where a biographer cannot depend completely on what Kick  writes or the scenes she depicts.  Many of Kick's letters--and even some parts of her diaries--were written as much to conceal as to reveal.  In order to accurately understand Kick's story, to know what was really happening--especially at the most important and dramatic moments in her life--I had to to be able to interview those in whom she confided the things she would not or could not commit to paper.  I had to be able to interview the people who were eyewitnesses to certain events, the people who in some cases understood things Kick did not, could not.

Without those interviews, Kick's story could not be accurately told.  And so this book turned out to be also a matter of luck and timing.  The interviews it required could not have been done if I had started work on the project just a few years ago as the key witnesses are all gone now.  

I began to research Kick's story when the key witnesses, the people who had been closest to her in these years, the people with whom she had shared her most intimate confidences, were still alive and able to be interviewed.  Over the course of years, these people talked to me at length in intense and intimate conversations about a young woman and a time that they had puzzled over and discussed among themselves for 5 decades.  These people entrusted me, as they saw it, not merely with Kick's story, but with important history.  I wrote the book because I was given a great gift by them--the unique opportunity to see a tumultuous time in history from a very intimate angle,to depict a world and characters who have now vanished forever.