An Unfinished Love Story : : a Personal History of the 1960S

Locations
Call Number: 921 Goodwin, Doris, Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / Literary / Goodwin, Doris Kearns, 921 Goodwin, Doris
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Malletts Creek Branch, Pittsfield Branch

Coming of age -- "A sort of dead end" -- Aboard the "Caroline" -- A Pandora's box of cigars -- The supreme generalist -- Kaleidoscope -- Thirteen LBJs -- "And we shall overcome" -- The never-ending resignation -- Friendship, loyalty, and duty -- Crosswinds of fate -- Endings and beginnings -- Our talisman.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning historian reflects on her 42-year marriage with Dick Goodwin, one the shining stars of John F. Kennedy's New Frontier and the journey of going through the letters, diaries, documents and memorabilia he saved over the years.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

the large political and the personal paralleled submitted by barbaracherem on August 2, 2024, 5:05pm Such a unique book for those in our 7th decade like Doris Kearns Goodwin. She of course wrote a lot about presidents from Teddy, to FDR and LBJ to name the earlier ones, but is probably best known for her Obama piece where she compared his way of gathering a "team of Rivals" who could questions his thinking much like Abe Lincoln did.
What I hadn't known was how her spouse of 40 years who was 11 years older than she, was also a political writer, but of speeches for JFK and others, and had a political insiders set of stories all his own, though Dick was not an author to be as well known as Doris.
This story written after her spouse died so entitled "An Unfinished Love Story" relates of how she and her 84 year old spouse, Dick, had boxes of archived stuff from their lives that they decided to unpack and the book really unpacks their personal lives that tell the story of our own lives from the desegregation of Doris's college sorority, to Dick's first steps into Law School and into speech writing under Sorenson for JFK. The fascination is in the discoveries they make of the things they each did before meeting one another, and the many stories to be told of famous people in the more ordinary moments of their lives. I really enjoyed this book for these parallel stories of the large well-known personalities, who chart a course of the 1960s forward, while at the same time telling how these larger figures and events played out in their own personal lives. Fascinating dual types of historical timelines. Highly recommend!

A riveting personal and political memoir submitted by Donna Wessel Walker on June 30, 2025, 1:35pm This is a powerful, meaningful book by one of our best popular writers of biographical history. It is a compelling, fascinating account from behind the scenes in Washington during the heady years of the 1960s. It is also a meaningful personal memoir of a loving marriage of partners. Doris Kearns Goodwin traces the parallel (but separate) careers she and her husband had during the 1960s. She was a student, grad student, then White House intern and aide to LBJ. Dick Goodwin was a speech writer and counselor to presidents JFK and LBJ, and to candidate RFK; he was in the room where it happened more times than one can count. But he was also dedicated heart and soul to the progressive aims of the Great Society and the War on Poverty, so this book is a stirring account of both the tremendous achievements of activism, and the searing disappointment of its failures because of backlash and the Viet Nam War. The writing is brisk and well-paced, and portrays vividly the excitement of the era. Doris Kearns Goodwin also describes the partnership of their marriage by accounting the process through which they culled, sorted, and assessed Dick's tremendous collection of papers and memorabilia from his long career; that process ended with his death, at 86, of cancer. Her account of their marriage, his decline and her care for him, and their mutual commitment make this more than a political memoir, and a unique widow's book. It is remarkably moving and deeply satisfying. I listened to this book: the author reads it, complemented by an actor reading Dick's comments and by archival recordings of important speeches. I was blown away.