Winchester Author Publishes Book on 'Hidden' Kennedy Daughter

Winchester’s Kate Clifford Larson will present her new biography about Joe and Rose Kennedy’s daughter at the Concord Bookshop on Sunday, Oct. 25, at 3 p.m.

Larson’s new book “Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter” highlights both the sensitive care Rose and Joe Kennedy gave to Rosemary, who was intellectually disabled.

The book looks at the often desperate arrangements the Kennedy’s made to keep her away from home as she became increasingly intractable in her early 20s. The decision to have Rosemary lobotomized at age 23, and the family’s complicity in keeping the secret is also explained.

Larson is the author of two critically acclaimed biographies: Bound For the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero and The Assassin’s Accomplice: Mary Surratt and the Plot to Kill Abraham Lincoln.

She has been a consultant and interpretive specialist for numerous museum and public history initiatives, focusing on the lives and contributions of women in the making of our national identity.

The Concord Bookshop is located at 65 Main Street.