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| Counselor LP: A Life at the Edge of History | 
 enlarge | Author: Ted Sorensen
Publisher: HarperLuxe
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
Buy New: $16.84
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Avg. Customer Rating:  33 reviews
Sales Rank: 891171
Format: Large Print
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 896
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.4
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 1.9
ISBN: 0061562742
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.922092
EAN: 9780061562747
ASIN: 0061562742
Publication Date: August 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
In this gripping memoir, John F. Kennedy's closest advisor recounts in full for the first time his experience counseling Kennedy through the most dramatic moments in American history. Sorensen returns to January 1953, when he and the freshman senator from Massachusetts began their extraordinary professional and personal relationship. Rising from legislative assistant to speechwriter and advisor, the young lawyer from Nebraska worked closely with JFK on his most important speeches, as well as his book Profiles in Courage. Sorensen encouraged the junior senator's political ambitions—from a failed bid for the vice presidential nomination in 1956 to the successful presidential campaign in 1960, after which he was named Special Counsel to the President. Sorensen describes in thrilling detail his experience advising JFK during some of the most crucial days of his presidency, from the decision to go to the moon to the Cuban Missile Crisis, when JFK requested that the thirty-four-year-old Sorensen draft the key letter to Khrushchev at the most critical point of the world's first nuclear confrontation. After Kennedy was assassinated, Sorensen stayed with President Johnson for a few months before leaving to write a biography of JFK. In 1968 he returned to Washington to help run Robert Kennedy's presidential campaign. Through it all, Sorensen never lost sight of the ideals that brought him to Washington and to the White House, working tirelessly to promote and defend free, peaceful societies. Illuminating, revelatory, and utterly compelling, Counselor is the brilliant, long-awaited memoir from the remarkable man who shaped the presidency and the legacy of one of the greatest leaders America has ever known.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 28 more reviews...
 Extraordinary personal history May 6, 2008
84 out of 91 found this review helpful
I know Ted Sorensen well, so what I have to say about his extraordinary personal history is obviously being written as a friend and admirer. As a friend, I can say that Ted speaks truth to power; as an admirer, I can say that he speaks truth forcefully and candidly. He was arguably John Kennedy's alter ego. At the very least, Ted was the man who shaped JFK's lyrical, intellectually vigorous speeches. But Ted was also a canny adviser, the lawyer who marshaled his facts well, made the connections between random thoughts and workable ideas, and produced a consistent body of work for the president he loved and trusted. Ted once told me that not a day goes by without him thinking of JFK -- of the man JFK was, and about what might have been. Like his late friend Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., Ted occupied an honored place at the table in Camelot. What his memoir makes plain -- in his own special, witty way -- is how much Ted shaped JFK's Camelot itself.
Sorensen Hits Home Run May 9, 2008
45 out of 53 found this review helpful
I know Ted Sorensen through our common support of Barack Obama and was eager to read this magnificent biography. I bought it on Tuesday, May 6 the first day it was published and I didn't put it down ( with the exception of eating, showering and sleeping about four hours each of the last two nights) until a few hours ago when I finished reading it.
It is a magnificent opus. The writing is superb. Rarely do the heart and head come together so well without sacrificing or compromising either.
Modest without being falsely self effacing, this truly is an indispensable book for any American citizen or world citizen. And its an absolute must for any political junkie from Al Franken to Ann Coulter.
Stop what you're doing. Run out and get it. Its a great gift for anyone's birthday in May (June is too late -- its that good).
Ted Sorensen is a historical figure in his own right. He was indispensable to Kennedy and now to Obama.
There are many reasons to read this book. Not just for its great insights with an unobscured and unobstructed perspective, but because of new information into the life of JFK whose reputation will be enhanced by this near reverential but still candid volume.
A mutual friend of Ted Sorensen's just forwarded me the first reviews including the Wall Street Journal. To say they were raves is to understate them.
Out of Nebraska May 12, 2008
43 out of 50 found this review helpful
The well-written memoirs of a man forever to be identified with John F. Kennedy's political career, especially the White House days. While not telling all, this book is the candid product of a bright, honest, but still politically driven man, a 1960s liberal, who writes in the twilight of his life.
Mr. Sorensen is one of the last living central participants of JFK's Administration and his story would have value for this fact alone. Readers wishing to learn about presidential political campaigning, the art of speech writing, and more on such important historical events as the Cuban Missile Crisis and the presidential transition from JFK to LBJ will profit from reading this book.
While material on his later private law practice is not as interesting as the rest of the text, this is only to be expected. In terms of his post White House career, I did find of value his description of his ill-fated nomination by President Carter as DCI and noted the fact there is little mention of President Clinton's years. (A prominent picture of Senator Obama and Ted Sorensen is in this book. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that the author sees the current junior senator from Illinois as his pick for this year's Democratic Party nominee for president--and the direct and true successor to JFK's legacy.)
A Great Storyteller at his Best May 18, 2008
21 out of 21 found this review helpful
I thoroughly enjoyed Counselor and especially appreciate the way Mr. Sorensen chose to organize his storytelling in a topical way (e.g., My Perspective of JFK's Personal Life, President Johnson's 1963 Transition, etc.). The author's prose is tight and well turned, as anyone familiar with his writing would expect, but at over 500 pages this is rather like the magnum opus of his life. I have a first edition of his excellent 1965 book on Kennedy but, for the most part, this latest and perhaps final work is much more candid. There are some exceptions such as his very touch and go treatment of Ted Kennedy and Chappaquiddick. He well describes the consequences of the incident but then takes the opportunity to sing the praises of the younger Kennedy's political skills, calling him "the most relaxed campaigner of the three..."
Mr. Sorensen has lived an interesting life apart from his work with the Kennedys and inclusion of that material is a plus. The space he devotes to it is about right; the book remains primarily focused on his long association with JFK and that is what the typical reader wants and expects. Of particular interest to me was how Kennedy reached out to Republicans -- described in a Chapter called "President Kennedy's Ministry of Talent." I knew it to be true (he appointed my uncle to the federal bench upon the recommendation of then Deputy Attorney General Byron "Whizzer" White) but didn't realize the full scope.
It would be easy to give this book the five stars it probably deserves but I went with four only because, from my perspective, the loyalty muzzle is still a little too evident. While I can come up with a few other petty critiques there is just much too much to like about this book to make that worthwhile. Some readers may disagree with Sorensen's politics but it would be the rare iconoclast who cannot appreciate his insights and wonderful storytelling.
A profound, timeless memoir June 9, 2008
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Some of the criticism leveled against Theodore Sorensen's new book, "Counselor", has to do with his close relationship to President Kennedy, thereby suggesting a literary hagiography. These sentiments could not be farther from the truth. In "Counselor", Sorensen offers up the good and the bad, the wise and the mediocre and provides what must be the definitive accounting of the Kennedy years. It's a fair and moving tribute to our thirty-fifth president and a terrific look at the man who spent so many years with him.
Sorensen's background, a Danish, Unitarian-Jewish kid from Nebraska, couldn't have been more than the oddest of pairings to John F. Kennedy. But they complemented each other in ways that both men found remarkable. Sorensen was, in many ways, Kennedy's eyes and ears for the eleven years in which they worked together and the author's eyewitness to history is a welcome addition to anyone who remembers that time. Describing in detail the Cuban Missile Crisis, Sorensen is at his best and this chapter is, indeed, the best of the book. He's also candid about what his service to the president meant to his own life....the break-up of his first marriage, his absence from his sons and countless numbers of sleepless nights. Along the way, Sorensen reminds the reader of his liberal roots and his continuing liberalism to this day. It's refreshing to know that one of the last surviving members of the Kennedy inner circle, while recently losing most of his eyesight, has not lost his fervor and passion.
Sorensen saves up some of his harshest comments for the end....a ringing indictment of the Bush administration and it comes precisely at a time when the country is in desperate need of new leadership. It doesn't go unnoticed that the final photo in the book is one of Sorensen and Barack Obama, taken last October. The spark of imagination that President Kennedy left seems to be in the air today.
"Counselor" is a deeply moving and personal work and every page is to be savored. It is particularly reflective for those of us old enough to remember President Kennedy and his times, but also a wonderful introduction to those young enough who might have felt a loss of inspiration because of the past eight years in Washington. I highly recommend "Counselor" for Theodore Sorensen's detailed remembrances of his role in American history and I mirror his hopes that life in America can be so much better.
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