I'm not that kind of boy," Jack angrily wrote to Lem after his friend made a sexual advance. But Jack didn't end the relationship. From the time John F. Kennedy and Kirk LeMoyne Lem" Billings met at Choate, until the President's assassination thirty years later, Jack and Lem remained best friends. Lem was a virtual fixture in the Kennedy family who even had his own room at the White House. Drawing on hundreds of letters and telegrams between the two, plus Lem Billings's oral history and interviews with family and friends like Ben Bradlee, Gore Vidal, and Ted Sorensen, award-winning Kennedy scholar David Pitts tells the story of an unusual friendship that endured despite an era of rampant homophobia.

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.

Reviews
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."



Book Information
ISBN 9780306816239
Author David Pitts
Format Paperback
Page Count 384
Imprint Da Capo Press Inc
Publisher Hachette Books
Weight(grams) 526g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 316mm * 24mm