Jack and Lem: John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings: The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship

by David Pitts

Overview

Jack and Lem explores the enduring friendship between John F. Kennedy and Kirk Lemoyne Billings (aka "Lem"). Jack Kennedy and Lem Billings met at Choate and remained friends until the Dallas gunfire that ended Kennedy's life thirty years later. Featuring interviews with Ben Bradlee, Gore Vidal, Ted Sorenson, friends, family, and many others, award -- winning journalist David Pitts begins the story with the early friendship between the men. Though Lem never held an official role in the Kennedy administration, his friendship and insight were much valued, so much so that he had his own room at the White House. This is the story of Jack and Lem and the climate for gays during he Kennedy era -- the story of a great friendship that grew and survived against the odds.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786732241
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	04/27/2009
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	958,490
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

David Pitts has been senior writer at the U.S. Information Agency/Voice of America, and has written for publications including the Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Christian Science Monitor. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Table of Contents

Preface     IX
Introduction     XIII
The Earlier Period
The Ties That Bind (Choate, 1933-35)     3
Rebels with a Cause (College, 1935-37)     39
Trip of a Lifetime (1937)     52
The Restless Years (1938-41)     68
Courage Under Fire (War, 1941-45)     83
Turning Point (1945)     105
Seeking the Torch (1946-59)     118
Room at the Top (The 1960 Election)     155
The White House Years
One Fine Day (The Inauguration, 1961)     175
First Friend (1961-63)     185
A Touch of Class (1961-63)     225
Blood and Tears (November 22-25, 1963)     239
Lem after Dallas
The Sea Change (1933 v. 1973)     253
His Final Years (1963-81)     270
Acknowledgments     309
Appendices
The Kennedys and the Billingses     316
Timeline     321
Source Notes     325
Bibliography     341
Index     345

Editorial Reviews

Freelance journalist Pitts thoroughly documents the long, intimate association of JFK and Kirk LeMoyne "Lem" Billings. The son of a Pittsburgh physician, Billings first met JFK in the early 1930s at Choate, where they systematically set about violating every campus rule possible. Although Lem was gay, their relationship was evidently always platonic and continued through WWII and after, as Billings pursued a career in advertising while also devoting much energy to advancing Kennedy's political career. Lem became an adored member of the extended Kennedy clan and loomed large in the lives of the children of the martyred Jack and Bobby. Billings also became a much-sought-after source, courted by dozens of Kennedy biographers until his death in 1981—a devotee to the end and somehow incomplete as an individual separate from Jack. Gore Vidal, no friend of Lem's, belittled him, saying, "He's the guy who carries the coat.... He's the guy who runs errands.... To Jack, Lem was a kind of idiot friend." But Pitt, in a well-done first book, insists JFK had "absolute trust in Lem" though their friendship remained an enigma to others. (May)

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Publishers Weekly

Instinct
“Finally—proof that a 'mo lived in the White House…This simple-to-digest study features fascinating, firsthand accounts from Camelot…What we leave with is that inevitably haunting question: Had he lived, what more could JFK have done for the progression of human rights?”

San Francisco Chronicle, 11/22/13
“[An] excellent book…Essential reading for those seeking that which shaped JFK's indelible personality.

From the Publisher