Twenty-Six Seconds

By: Alexandra Zapruder

Narrated by: Alexandra Zapruder

Length: 14 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's Summary

The moving untold family story behind Abraham Zapruder's film footage of the Kennedy assassination and its lasting impact on our world.

Abraham Zapruder didn't know when he began filming President Kennedy's motorcade on November 22, 1963, that his home movie would change not only his family's life but American culture and history as well. Now his granddaughter tells the whole story of the Zapruder film for the first time. With the help of personal family records, previously sealed archival sources, and interviews, she traces the film's complex journey through history, considering its impact on her family and the public realms of the media, courts, federal government, and the arts community. Part biography, part family history, and part historical narrative, Zapruder tells how 26 seconds of film changed a family and raised some of the most important social, cultural, and moral questions of our time.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2016 Alexandra Zapruder (P)2016 Hachette Audio

An awesome book I had no plans to read.

I've never had any interest in JFK. I had heard of the Zapruder film, But didn't know it was a "home movie". Yet, When I started this book. I couldn't stop.

Outstanding book chronicling story behind the historic Zapruder film

Fascinating from start to finish. I highly recommend listening to this audiobook which was read by the author, making it even more compelling .

Good only for the first hour....

Would you try another book from Alexandra Zapruder and/or Alexandra Zapruder?

Probably not.

If you’ve listened to books by Alexandra Zapruder before, how does this one compare?

First one

What about Alexandra Zapruder’s performance did you like?

She was a good, clear reader.

Any additional comments?

This would be a good book for law students on the topic of copyright issues. After the first hour's insights into Abraham Zapruder and the aftermath of what he went through during and after 11/22/63, the book just bogged down into legal and copyright issues. That was quite disappointing.

Thank You!

So well done. Tasteful, thoughtful, sensitively done. Thorough historically, factually, and really appreciated the legal insight and analysis scientifically, as well as the perspective from the personal impact on the Zapruder family.

Zapruder Does Her Subject Historical Justice

Would you listen to Twenty-Six Seconds again? Why?

Yes I would, because there is so much information both technical about the regular 8mm filming, as her Grandfather's camera was designed to work, and then there is the family history side which involves how her father, Henry, handled requests for copies of the film while keeping up his own tax law office in Dallas. There is the story of how the government handled the two copies of the film and how LIFE magazine's editor Richard Stolley obtained rights to print frames of the film by treatment Mr. Zapruder with the greatest respect. There is the story of how the National Archives obtained the original Zapruder camera and used it for analysis for the Warren Commission. Then finally there is the story of how the film was given back to the family for $16 million in the late 1990's and how they decided to hand the copyright back into the hands of the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.

There is so much information, well researched and documented by Alexandra, that this book should serve researchers well into the 22nd century and beyond.

What other book might you compare Twenty-Six Seconds to and why?

I can't think of any so well researched, except for Vincent Bugliosi's "Reclaiming History" which he researched for twenty years before publishing ten years before his death in 2007.

What does Alexandra Zapruder bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Her raw emotion of her voice, her engagement of relating her memories of her Grandfather and family members.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, but it ran very long. It took about three days with life's responsibilities to be carried out.

1 of 2 people found this review helpful