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Twilight of Camelot: The Short Life and Long Legacy of Patrick Bouvier Kennedy
From the author of the “insightful and well-crafted” (The Wall Street Journal) Kennedy and King comes a heart-wrenching and sensitive examination of the tragic loss of President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy’s premature son, Patrick, and how their shared grief brought them closer together in the months leading up to his assassination.
In April 1963, the White House announced that Jackie was pregnant with a sibling for Caroline and John Jr.—joyful news after years of miscarriages and a stillbirth in 1956. But on August 7th, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy was born six weeks premature and died less than two days later.
In this probing, soulful account of the struggle to save Patrick, Steven Levingston takes us inside the long-troubled relationship of Jack and Jackie as they faced one of the most difficult experiences of their marriage. With a “perceptive and eloquent” (The Christian Science Monitor) voice, Levingston reveals how Patrick’s death, tragic as it was, ultimately brought the couple closer together and set the President on a trajectory to be a better husband and father in the months leading up to their fateful campaign trip to Dallas.
In a parallel storyline, Levingston reveals the largely unknown role President Kennedy played in modernizing an important corner of American health care. After Patrick’s death, he ordered studies into the primitive state of premature care and drummed up millions of dollars in government funding, igniting a revolution in treatments that over the decades have saved millions of infants thanks to the invention of baby ventilators, new drugs, and modern neonatal intensive care units.
For his definitive account of Patrick’s brief but influential life, Levingston draws on first-ever interviews with doctors who treated Jackie and Patrick, in-depth revelations of the Secret Service agent in whose speeding car Jackie nearly gave birth prematurely, and on new archival documents. Twilight of Camelot is a fresh and humanizing portrait of one of the most famous and complicated couples of the 20th century, and a pulsating drama that illuminates one of the least-known periods in Kennedy family history.
In April 1963, the White House announced that Jackie was pregnant with a sibling for Caroline and John Jr.—joyful news after years of miscarriages and a stillbirth in 1956. But on August 7th, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy was born six weeks premature and died less than two days later.
In this probing, soulful account of the struggle to save Patrick, Steven Levingston takes us inside the long-troubled relationship of Jack and Jackie as they faced one of the most difficult experiences of their marriage. With a “perceptive and eloquent” (The Christian Science Monitor) voice, Levingston reveals how Patrick’s death, tragic as it was, ultimately brought the couple closer together and set the President on a trajectory to be a better husband and father in the months leading up to their fateful campaign trip to Dallas.
In a parallel storyline, Levingston reveals the largely unknown role President Kennedy played in modernizing an important corner of American health care. After Patrick’s death, he ordered studies into the primitive state of premature care and drummed up millions of dollars in government funding, igniting a revolution in treatments that over the decades have saved millions of infants thanks to the invention of baby ventilators, new drugs, and modern neonatal intensive care units.
For his definitive account of Patrick’s brief but influential life, Levingston draws on first-ever interviews with doctors who treated Jackie and Patrick, in-depth revelations of the Secret Service agent in whose speeding car Jackie nearly gave birth prematurely, and on new archival documents. Twilight of Camelot is a fresh and humanizing portrait of one of the most famous and complicated couples of the 20th century, and a pulsating drama that illuminates one of the least-known periods in Kennedy family history.
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Published February 24, 2026
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About the author
Steven Levingston
7 books46 followersSteven Levingston is a former senior book editor of the Washington Post and author of "Twilight of Camelot: The Short Life and Long Legacy of Patrick Bouvier Kennedy", "Barack and Joe," "Kennedy and King", and "Little Demon in the City of Light". He has lived and worked in Beijing, Hong Kong, New York, Paris, and Washington and reported and edited for the Wall Street Journal and International Herald Tribune.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 5, 2026
Twilight of Camelot: The Short Life and Long Legacy of Patrick Bouvier Kennedy by Steven Levingston is an amazing nonfiction book that will stay with me for a very long time.
This book really affected me on an emotional level several times. I have always devoured anything Kennedy that is accurate and respectful. However, there were several details involving the loss of not just Patrick, but also of Jackie’s other pregnancies that was new to me.
The author did an amazing job highlighting the devastating losses that the Former President and First lady experienced not just with their young children, but her pregnancies and the loss of their relationship just when changes were taking place. The human side…the raw, real, and flawed aspects of the real person behind the position was impressively presented to the reader throughout. Reading such personal, but respectfully presented, really added a whole new dimension to this famous family.
I dare anyone to read this book and have dry eyes at the end.
5/5 stars
Thank you NG and Gallery Books for this wonderful arc and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.
I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication on 2/24/26.
This book really affected me on an emotional level several times. I have always devoured anything Kennedy that is accurate and respectful. However, there were several details involving the loss of not just Patrick, but also of Jackie’s other pregnancies that was new to me.
The author did an amazing job highlighting the devastating losses that the Former President and First lady experienced not just with their young children, but her pregnancies and the loss of their relationship just when changes were taking place. The human side…the raw, real, and flawed aspects of the real person behind the position was impressively presented to the reader throughout. Reading such personal, but respectfully presented, really added a whole new dimension to this famous family.
I dare anyone to read this book and have dry eyes at the end.
5/5 stars
Thank you NG and Gallery Books for this wonderful arc and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.
I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication on 2/24/26.
January 24, 2026
4.5 for me. One of my favorite books I’ve read about the Kennedy family and their tragedies. Lots of well done research and interviews from the people closest to them. A very close look into JFK and Jackie’s relationship during some of their hardest days. The details and emotion really bring the story together. It’s bittersweet that Patrick’s short life has done so much good for research toward premature births.
Thank you NetGalley and Gallery Books for this eARC!
Thank you NetGalley and Gallery Books for this eARC!
November 5, 2025
Thank you to NetGalley, Gallery Books and Steven Levingston for sharing this ARC with me, in exchange for my honest opinions and thoughts.
Twilight Of Camelot is a great read. In America, where we don't acknowledge Royalty, the Kennedy's were the closest we ever got. Twilight of Camelot tells the story of the very short life of Patrick Bouvier Kennedy. Mr. Steven paints a picture in your mind where, even though I wasn't born yet, I felt as though I was there in the 1960's feeling everything.
This is an excellent book.
I highly recommend this book.
Twilight Of Camelot is a great read. In America, where we don't acknowledge Royalty, the Kennedy's were the closest we ever got. Twilight of Camelot tells the story of the very short life of Patrick Bouvier Kennedy. Mr. Steven paints a picture in your mind where, even though I wasn't born yet, I felt as though I was there in the 1960's feeling everything.
This is an excellent book.
I highly recommend this book.
September 10, 2025
Here's a non-traditional history of an administration's last hundred days, bookended by tragedies in August and November of 1963. The author, a good journalist who tells a good story, maps the final days of the Kennedy administration to the loss of the first couple's son, Patrick, after just thirty-nine hours. It's a sympathetic look that asks questions about balancing national news with personal pain. A good read, although not groundbreaking, and perhaps particularly good for grieving fathers.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books for the digital copy of this book; I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Being a consumer of most of the modern Kennedy family books, I really wondered if there would be anything new for me in this book. In a word, yes! Patrick Kennedy, though he only lived a few days, had a profound impact on John and Jacqueline Kennedy. This book tells their story.
We all know that JFK ended up being a good president who one day might have become a great president, but he was a terrible husband. His cheating on Jackie was horrible, yet despite all this, they grew closer together after the Cuban Missile Crisis. Jacqueline’s pregnancy was very dangerous, following miscarriages, a stillborn daughter, and complications with both Caroline and John Jr’s births.
Steven Levingston has done an admirable job showing Jacqueline and John’s relationship, how they were as parents, as well as their life as public figures. Losing a child in such a public way bound the two as never before. Jackie committed to traveling with Jack on campaign trips, which is something she rarely did before. That first trip was to Texas in November 1963.
I felt I got to know more about their family a little bit better with nuances that I had never read before. Worth a read if you are like me and like reading about Presidents or grieving families.
Being a consumer of most of the modern Kennedy family books, I really wondered if there would be anything new for me in this book. In a word, yes! Patrick Kennedy, though he only lived a few days, had a profound impact on John and Jacqueline Kennedy. This book tells their story.
We all know that JFK ended up being a good president who one day might have become a great president, but he was a terrible husband. His cheating on Jackie was horrible, yet despite all this, they grew closer together after the Cuban Missile Crisis. Jacqueline’s pregnancy was very dangerous, following miscarriages, a stillborn daughter, and complications with both Caroline and John Jr’s births.
Steven Levingston has done an admirable job showing Jacqueline and John’s relationship, how they were as parents, as well as their life as public figures. Losing a child in such a public way bound the two as never before. Jackie committed to traveling with Jack on campaign trips, which is something she rarely did before. That first trip was to Texas in November 1963.
I felt I got to know more about their family a little bit better with nuances that I had never read before. Worth a read if you are like me and like reading about Presidents or grieving families.
February 26, 2026
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Like most non-fiction about the Kennedys, there’s too much time spent on the backstory and regurgitating quotes that are already well known. I understand the background info is there for readers who may not be familiar with the family’s history, but still. If a book is focused on a certain time in their lives, get to it and focus on that (even if the book is shorter). Additionally, we did not need the chapters on Dallas. JFK’s death is one of the most overly dissected events in history. The only “needed” book at this point on the assassination is one detailing everything that happened (which we’ll never get).
It’s fucked up that JFK didn’t tell Jackie he had chlamydia, especially now that we know it can have an impact on a baby’s health. Not surprising but still devastating for a wife I imagine.
It was cool to learn about JFK’s involvement in research in premature babies. It’s rare to learn something about this family that hasn’t already been shared.
Overall, it definitely wasn’t a complete borefest but it wasn’t super engaging either. Eh.
Like most non-fiction about the Kennedys, there’s too much time spent on the backstory and regurgitating quotes that are already well known. I understand the background info is there for readers who may not be familiar with the family’s history, but still. If a book is focused on a certain time in their lives, get to it and focus on that (even if the book is shorter). Additionally, we did not need the chapters on Dallas. JFK’s death is one of the most overly dissected events in history. The only “needed” book at this point on the assassination is one detailing everything that happened (which we’ll never get).
It’s fucked up that JFK didn’t tell Jackie he had chlamydia, especially now that we know it can have an impact on a baby’s health. Not surprising but still devastating for a wife I imagine.
It was cool to learn about JFK’s involvement in research in premature babies. It’s rare to learn something about this family that hasn’t already been shared.
Overall, it definitely wasn’t a complete borefest but it wasn’t super engaging either. Eh.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews