Author Event: "White House By the Sea" with Kate Storey

Darien Library and Barrett Bookstore welcome Kate Storey, author of White House by the Sea:  A Century of the Kennedys at Hyannis Port. Enjoy a fascinating and illuminating afternoon and learn about the intimate, multi-generational story of the Kennedy family as seen through their Hyannis Port compound on Cape Cod—the iconic place where they’ve celebrated, mourned, and forged the closest of bonds. The book provides a sweeping history of an American dynasty and the house that built the Kennedys, the place that holds some of the most monumental moments and memories of not just a family, but the nation.

Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, is synonymous with the Kennedy family. It is where, for a century, America’s most storied political family has come to celebrate, bond, play, and grieve.  It is also the setting of so many moments cemented in our collective national memory: JFK giving his presidential acceptance speech, Jackie speaking with a Life magazine reporter just days after her husband’s assassination, Senator Edward Kennedy seeking refuge after the Chappaquiddick crash, Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger tying the knot—and even Conor Kennedy courting pop star Taylor Swift.  

Kate Storey’s unprecedented access and diligent research, combined with the intimate personal stories of her sources, results in a rich and textured account of the Kennedys’ lives in their summer refuge.  From the 1920s, when Rose and Joseph P. Kennedy rented, then bought, a home known as The Malcolm Cottage, to today, when many Kennedys have purchased their own homes surrounding what’s now called "The Big House," White House by the Sea delivers many surprising revelations across the decades, including what matriarch Rose considered the family’s greatest tragedy, the rivalrous relationship between brothers Jack and Joe, details about Jackie’s life at the compound, and previously unknown glimpses into JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette’s loving and ill-fated relationship.

About the Author

Kate Storey is the senior features editor at Rolling Stone. She was previously a staff writer at Esquire, where she covered culture and politics, and has written long-form profiles and narrative features for Vanity Fair, Marie Claire, Town & Country, and other publications. She lives with her family in New Jersey. 

Books will be available for purchase at the event.