The Nine of Us: Growing Up Kennedy

In this evocative and affectionate memoir, Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith, the last surviving child of Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy and Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., offers an intimate and illuminating look at a time when she and her siblings lived and learned together under one roof.

Prompted by interesting tidbits in the daily papers, Rose and Joe Kennedy would pose questions to their nine children at the dinner table: “Where has Amelia Earhart gone?” “Do you think there will be war in Europe?” “What will the British do?” It was a nightly custom that helped shape the Kennedys into the men and women they would become.

Before Joe and Rose’s children emerged as leaders on the world stage, they were simply a loving circle of brothers and sisters who played football, swam, sailed, read, and pursued their interests. They were children inspired by their parents, who instilled in them a strong work ethic, a deep love of country, and an intense appreciation for the sacrifices their ancestors made to come to America. “No whining in this house!” was their father’s regular refrain. It was his way of reminding them not to complain and to be grateful for what they had, and he always emphasized how important it is to give back.

As Jean Kennedy Smith writes of her parents, “They knew how to cure our hurts, bind our wounds, listen to our woes, and help us enjoy life. We were lucky children indeed.”

With charming anecdotes and dozens of rarely seen family photographs, The Nine of Us offers indelible, elegantly rendered portraits of a closely knit family known throughout the world.