For Immediate Release: October 24, 2007
Further information: Brent R. Carney (617) 514-1662, Brent.Carney@JFKLFoundation.org
The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum invites members of the public to join Caroline Kennedy as she signs copies of her new book, A Family Christmas, on Wednesday, November 7, from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. in the Museum’s Pavilion. Copies of A Family Christmas will be available for sale in the Museum Store prior to the book signing.
A bestselling author, Caroline Kennedy drew on her own family's traditions to create this collection of favorite stories, poems, and writings that celebrate the holiday spirit. Her introduction relates the importance of the holiday to her family, and shares how the literature in this collection is an essential part of her own tradition.
“When I began assembling this collection, I was skeptical that I would learn anything new about Christmas, but reading and reflecting on the history and spirit of Christmas brought back many memories, and taught me a great deal,” said Ms. Kennedy. “The literature of Christmas ranges from the miraculous to the tragic, the profound to the ridiculous, but always represents the connection to something larger than ourselves."
In A Family Christmas, Kennedy shares Christmas poetry, prose, scriptural readings, and lyrics, drawing on authors as diverse as Nikki Giovanni, Martin Luther King Jr., Billy Collins, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and Charles Dickens. There are also many lesser-known gems throughout the collection -- including a young Caroline's Christmas list to Santa Claus and a letter from President John F. Kennedy to a child concerned about Santa's well-being.
This diverse and unique anthology also includes selections from: Groucho Marx, Emma Lazarus, Mark Twain, Sandra Cisneros, David Sedaris, Pearl S. Buck, Truman Capote, Kurt Vonnegut, Gabriela Mistral, Ogden Nash, Clement Clarke Moore, Vladimir Nabokov, Marianne Moore, Calvin Trillin, E. B. White, and many more.
A Family Christmas is published by Hyperion Books.
Caroline Kennedy is the Vice Chair of the New York City Fund for Public Schools, a non-profit organization which seeks private sector support for public education. Since 2002, The Fund has raised more than $188 million and enlisted record numbers of New Yorkers to volunteer in NYC schools. A graduate of Harvard University and Columbia Law School, Kennedy is an attorney and the author/editor of six best selling books on civil rights, American history, politics and poetry. She writes a column for TIME on the Power of One about people who are making a difference in their communities. Ms. Kennedy is the President of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and a member of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award Committee. She is a Director of the Commission on Presidential Debates. She and her husband, interactive designer, Edwin Schlossberg, have 3 children.