ALSO BY DAVID NASAW Andrew Carnegie The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst Going Out: The Rise and Fall of Public Amusements Children of the City: At Work and at Play Schooled to Order: A Social History of Public Schooling in the United States THE PENGUIN PRESS Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A. • Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) • Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England • Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) • Penguin Group (Australia), 707 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3008 Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) • Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi – 110 017, India • Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) • Penguin Books, Rosebank Office Park, 181 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parktown North 2193, South Africa • Penguin China, B7 Jaiming Center, 27 East Third Ring Road North, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100020, China Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England First published in 2012 by The Penguin Press, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Copyright © David Nasaw, 2012 All rights reserved Photograph credits appear here. Frontis photo © Bettmann/CORBIS Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Nasaw, David. The patriarch : the remarkable life and turbulent times of Joseph P. Kennedy / David Nasaw. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-101-59591-6 1. Kennedy, Joseph P. (Joseph Patrick), 1888-1969. 2. Ambassadors—United States—Biography. 3. Politicians—United States—Biography. 4. Businesspeople—United States—Biography. 5. Kennedy family. I. Title. E748.K376N37 2012 973.9092—dc23 [B] 2012027315 No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions. CONTENTS Also by David Nasaw Title Page Copyright Cast of Characters Introduction Part I: East Boston to Cambridge to Brookline One: Dunganstown to East Boston Two: School Days Three: Starting Out Four: War Five: Making a Million Part II: Hollywood Six: “My Own Master in My Own Business” Seven: Hollywood Eight: Gloria and Rose Nine: Last Exit from Hollywood Part III: Washington Ten: On the Roosevelt Train Eleven: Waiting for the Call Twelve: To Washington Thirteen: Reelecting Roosevelt Fourteen: Maritime Commissioner Part IV: London Fifteen: A Plainspoken Ambassador Sixteen: A Rather Dreadful Homecoming Seventeen: Munich Eighteen: The Kennedy Plan Nineteen: Sidelined and Censored Twenty: “This Country Is at War with Germany” Twenty-one: The Lives of Americans Are at Stake Twenty-two: Defeatist Twenty-three: The Fall of France Twenty-four: The Worst of Times Twenty-five: There’s Hell to Pay Tonight Part V: Washington, but Briefly Twenty-six: Home Again Twenty-seven: The Man Who Out-Hamleted Hamlet Part VI: Palm Beach and Hyannis Port Twenty-eight: A Forced Retirement Twenty-nine: War Thirty: “A Melancholy Business” Thirty-one: The Candidate’s Father Thirty-two: Family Matters Thirty-three: “The Great Debate” Thirty-four: The Next Senator from Massachusetts Thirty-five: Retirement Thirty-six: Making Money and Giving It Away Thirty-seven: The Catholic Candidate Thirty-eight: Electing a President Thirty-nine: “He Belongs to the Country” Forty: “No!” Photographs Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography of Works Cited Index Photograph Credits About the Author