The Globe reports that Ted Kennedy has sold a memoir to the Hachette Book Group for $8 million. Good for him—let’s hope he tells an honest story. He could tell a fascinating one.

I have some small insight into this news. Back when I was writing my book about John Kennedy, I took a lot of heat from some people who thought it was a bad idea, including Caroline Kennedy. (Though you’d never be able to find her fingerprints on it—everything she did was through surrogates. A careful woman.)

But not Teddy. His representatives were, if not supportive, quietly cooperative throughout, and I got the feeling that the senator knew well that such books about his family helped to build its mythology and thus had a certain social and political value. Also, he obviously cared about John very deeply, and I don’t think he minded so much the idea that an admiring colleague would remember his nephew in a book.

While Caroline Kennedy never acknowledged the letters I sent to her in which I explained the nature of my book—what it would be, what it wouldn’t be—I spoke to a Ted Kennedy aide on several occasions, and those people were always perfectly civil and decent about the project. Before the book was officially published, I made sure to send copies to the senator.

So when people would say to me, “How do the Kennedys feel about your book?”, I would respond, well, the Kennedys aren’t a monolith; you can’t speak of the family as if it has a collective brain. Most of the time, I got the feeling that that wasn’t the answer people wanted to hear, but it was the true one.

All of which is a long way of suggesting some small insight into why Teddy might be writing his memoir now, other than the $8 million—because he believes in the power and merit of books, believes in the telling of history, rather than trying to squelch it.

I would also note something that the Globe does not pick up (shocker): Hachette Book Group is, of course, an arm of Hachette-Filipacchi Media, the publisher of George magazine. So there is an emotional connection involved that the Globe missed. Senator Kennedy’s memory appears to be longer than those who write about him, which bodes well for his memoir.