A landmark autobiography and the definite account from a member of America's most heralded family.

As a young man, Edward M. Kennedy played a key role in the presidential campaign of his brother, John F. Kennedy. In 1962, he was elected to the US Senate, where he learned how to become an effective legislator. His life was marked by tragedy and perseverance: he writes movingly of his brothers and his years of struggle in the wake of their deaths; his marriage to Victoria, the woman who changed his life; and his role in the major events of our time from civil rights, Vietnam and Watergate to the quest for peace in Northern Ireland.