Book: An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s
Author: Doris Kearns Goodwin
Reviewed by: Paul Varian, Retired CNN Sr. Editor/Exec.Producer
There’s nothing complicated about what makes this memoir by acclaimed presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin so grippingly appealing.
“It covers the history that was made during our lives and it is striking in its glory and tragedy,” said one fan, who happens to be my brother.
“An Unfinished Love Story” provides an unflinching, up-close-and-personal record of “the political cauldron of the Sixties,” in Kearns Goodwin’s words.”
It is based largely on the massive archive of speeches, drafts, letters, memos, documents and notes warehoused for some 50 years by her husband Richard Goodwin.
And brought to life by their decades-long romance and a productive working relationship, professionally detached at times and touchingly intimate at others.
Goodwin was one of the bright young men personally recruited by John F. Kennedy for his “New Frontier” 1960 presidential campaign and subsequent White House staff.
He rose through the ranks swiftly and went on to become President Lyndon Johnson’s favorite speechwriter, credited for the rhetorical flourishes of LBJ’s “Great Society” address.
Goodwin left the Johnson White House in 1965 in disgust over the Vietnam War and became good friends and a top aide to Robert F. Kennedy after LBJ resigned his office in 1968.
“It’s like getting bit by your own dog,” the ex-president told a reporter.
Despite her involvement in anti-war protests and one widely read article denouncing U.S. Vietnam policy, Doris Kearns joined LBJ’s staff as a White House Fellow two years after her future husband’s departure, gaining rare Oval Office access and helping LBJ on his own memoir.
Although she later achieved fame for her biographies of Abraham Lincoln and the two Roosevelts, Teddy and FDR — Lyndon Johnson provided Kearns entree as a presidential historian.
“My guys,” she affectionally calls them, though Johnson was the only one she ever got to meet.
Goodwin’s more than 300 boxes documenting his life’s work along with the personal observations and thoughts became the last project he and his dearest Doris would tackle.
The contents alone were like hidden treasure, filled with stories never fully told.
Just as interesting, Kearns Goodwin recorded their insightful conversations and sometimes conflicting reactions to what they found.
“So long as we were working together, opening boxes, learning, laughing, discussing the contents, we were alive.”
In addition, Kearns Goodwin reached out to others from that revolutionary era — movers and shakers along with just plain folks — for their real-time impressions all these years later.
In his 80s with his health steadily deteriorating, Goodwin told his doctors, “I want to finish this book before I die.”
Such was not to be. His last words to his wife:
“You are a wonder.”
Her book — their book — makes the case.
Editor’s notes: Global Atlanta will receive a 10 percent commission on any purchase of this book through the links on this page.
Each year, Global Atlanta asks influential readers and community leaders to review the most impactful book they read during the course of the year. This endeavor has continued annually since 2010.
See last year’s full list of books on Bookshop here and see Global Atlanta’s full store, featuring Reader Picks lists going back to 2013 along with lists of books we’ve covered through stories or author talks.
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