The Honorable James W. Symington
Heard and Overheard

Author’s Website:
www.symingtonoverheard.com

Heard and Overheard:

Words Wise (And Otherwise)
with Politicians, Statesmen, and Real People

Jim Symington was there as history was being made. This book recounts his first-hand observations of the newsmakers of the day, such as Bobby Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Ambassador Jock Whitney as events were unfolding. From the New Deal to President Obama’s Cuban initiative, Symington reports on the behind-the-scenes encounters. “Heard and Overheard” is presented in three parts: politicians, statesmen, and real people.

“Jimmy Symington…is one of the best story-tellers in the world, a distinction he shares with his fellow Missourian, Mr. Mark Twain… [He] is a WASP Forrest Gump… You name it, he was there. The man has had more lives than a cat; more phases than Madonna.” — from the foreword by Christopher Buckley.

About the Author

James W. Symington entered Yale College where he studied history and sang in the Glee Club. In 1958 Ambassador John Hay Whitney engaged him as his assistant at the embassy in London. He was deputy director of President Kennedy’s Food For Peace program, administrative assistant to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, and director of the President’s Committee on Juvenile Delinquency. Named by President Lyndon Johnson to be Chief of Protocol, in 1968, he was elected to represent Missouri’s Second Congressional District. After four terms in Congress, he co-founded the law firm Smathers, Symington & Herlong.

He helped found the American-Russian Cultural Cooperation Foundation (ARCCF), served as director of the Atlantic Council and as director of the Library of Congress’s Russian Leadership Program.

He and Sylvia, parents of two grown children and grandparents of five, live in Washington, D.C., and Middleburg, Virginia