“Ture Compass”, the autobiography by Sen. Kennedy, who died on Aug. 25 at age 77, adds little to what is known about the Chappaquiddick accident and its aftermath but recounts how they weighed on him and his family. The book does not shy from the accident, or from some other less savory aspects of the senator’s life, including a notorious 1991 drinking episode in Palm Beach, Fla., or the years of heavy drinking and women-chasing that followed his 1982 divorce from his first wife, Joan.
But it also offers rich detail on his relationships with his father, siblings and children that round out a portrait of a man who lived the most public of lives and yet remained something of a mystery. Among other things, it says that in 1984 he decided against seeking the presidency after hearing the emotional objections of his children, who, it says, feared for his life.
A copy of the 532-page memoir, scheduled for sale Sept. 14, was obtained by The New York Times. It was published by Twelve, an imprint of Grand Central Publishing.
Ture Compass?
I think that’s True Compass, not Ture Compass.