Twilight of Camelot: The Short Life and Long Legacy of Patrick Bouvier Kennedy

by Steven Levingston

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, President Kennedy and the First Lady announced the pregnancy of their third child—joyful news after years of miscarriages and the stillborn birth of a daughter 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.

For his definitive account of Patrick’s brief but influential life, Levingston draws on first-ever interviews with doctors who treated Jackie and Patrick, never-published revelations of the Secret Service agent in whose speeding car Jackie in-premature-labor nearly gave birth, 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.

Audible Audio

Expected publication February 24, 2026

About the author

Steven Levingston is a former senior book editor of the Washington Post and author of "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.

Reviews

[Bargain Sleuth Book Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[SuzieQuzie7973 · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Jeffrey Aubuchon · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.