Photo: Cover of the book:”Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter” by Kate Clifford Larson.

Author Kate Clifford Larson will speak on her book “Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter” at Books and Bites on Monday, April 11 at 11 a.m. in the Assembly Room of the Belmont Public Library.

Rosemary, Joseph and Rose Kennedy’s daughter, was intellectually disabled; a secret fiercely guarded by her powerful and glamorous family. Now using major new sources – Rose Kennedy’s diaries and correspondence, school and doctors’ letters, and exclusive family interviews – Larson bring Rosemary alive, revealing both the sensitive care that Rose and Joe gave to Rosemary and then – as the family’s standing reached an apex – the often desperate and duplicitous arrangements the Kennedys made to keep her away from home as she became increasingly intractable in her early twenties. Finally, Larson illuminates Joe’s decision to have Rosemary lobotomized at 23, and the family’s complicity in keeping the secret.

Larson is the author of two critically acclaimed biographies: “Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero” and “The Assassin’s Accomplice: Mary Surratt and the Plot to Kill Abraham Lincoln.”

All are welcome to attend this free program, sponsored by the Friends of the Belmont Public Library. Books will be available for purchase and signing. Refreshments will be provided. The Assembly Room is handicapped accessible.

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