Product Description

Critical Acclaim for Jacqueline Bouvier John Davis’s intimate memoir of his beloved first cousin "Readers longing for a dignified and elegant approach to Jackie’s early years will enjoy this biographical gem by John H. Davis." —Boston Herald "Goes a long way to highlight the formative influence of her privileged back-ground and her warm relationship with her father, the philandering Jack (Black Jack) Bouvier." —Los Angeles Times "Re-creates a colorful, fast-fading slice of American life as it flourished in the shadows of toll hedges and long lineages." —The Miami Herald "The most charming and reliable in the batch [of Jackie books] is Davis’s memoir." —The Atlanta Journal and Constitution "Entertaining, a guilty pleasure." —The Associated Press "This tender memoir of Jackie’s early years sheds much light on the future woman we all wanted to know but never could." —The Star-Ledger (Newark)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #734144 in Books
• Published on: 1998-02-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Amazon.com Review
As a child, author John H. Davis spent summers with Jackie and the Bouviers and was like a member of the family. In this, his third book on the aristocratic clan, Davis covers Jackie's life until her first wedding. Mr. Davis possessed great disdain for Jackie's mother and includes many nasty details about her--including how she hired a young woman to trap her husband in verifiable infidelity. He also writes that a close friend of Jackie's father later moved to Texas and became the "principal mentor and friend" to Lee Harvey Oswald--a revelation that puts a new twist on the conspiracy theory.

From Publishers Weekly
Memoirs written by relatives of the rich and famous often try to settle scores or exploit distant ties. Not so that of Davis, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis's first cousin, who has written several books on famed clans (The Guggenheims) and on his relatives by marriage (The Kennedys), as well as on his own folk (The Bouviers). Davis's mother, now 90, is Maude Bouvier, Jacqueline's aunt. Here he focuses on Jacqueline's (he never calls her Jackie) childhood and adolescence and concludes with her marriage to John F. Kennedy. He writes from the point of view of a contemporary who shared summers at Grampy Jack Bouvier's magnificent East Hampton estate. Davis watched Jacqueline as she grew into an accomplished rider and a charming, self-contained young woman. He also watched as her parents, "Black" Jack Bouvier and Janet Lee Bouvier, fought viciously for her attention and affection. They eventually divorced, and Jacqueline's father spent much of his life trying?unsuccessfully?to keep Jacqueline away from his former wife after she married into the wealthy Auchincloss family. Davis's probing into family sorrows is gentle. This was a world where the children ran wild but dressed for dinner, where anything could be charged to Grampy Jack at the clubs and stores but where financial difficulties lurked beneath the idyllic surface. Unlike so many books about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, this one actually adds to our understanding and appreciation of the woman she became. Photos.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
This very evocative book by the late Mrs. Onassis's cousin is as much a nostalgic look at a vanished way of life as it is a memoir of Jacqueline Bouvier from her birth in 1929 until her marriage to Senator John F. Kennedy in September 1953. The author's access to family papers helped fill in the details of an enormously privileged yet often unhappy childhood, in which her parents' divorce left the young girl torn between the father she adored and an extremely controlling mother who was jealous of that relationship. Davis recounts gossip, but readers expecting nothing but dirt will be disappointed. This is instead a fond look at a beautiful and intelligent woman who was always something of an enigma, even to her own family; Davis does shed light on the events that helped make Jacqueline such a private person. This brief memoir includes beautiful photographs, some never before published. Recommended for libraries where there is an interest in Jacqueline Onassis and the Kennedys.?Elizabeth Mellett, Brookline P.L., Mass.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Excellent book about Jackie's childhood
This was one of the first books I read about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and though I've read many since, I still consider this one of the best. It is filled with reminisces of events experienced by the author, a cousin of Jackie's who kept in touch with her throughout her life. The author has done extensive research into both the Bouviers and the Kennedys in his other writings - this book is an interesting and informative combination of that research and his personal memories of Jackie as a child and young woman. Highly recommended to all who wish to learn more about the less documented part of Jackie's life.

An excellent look at Jackie's early childhood.
If one is interested in learning about Jackie Kennedy's early childhood and teen years, this is the perfect book to examine. The author, a cousin of the late First Lady, shared many of her early experiences and thus provides excellent primary source material. Also noteworthy are photographs from Jackie's childhood and teen years

Jacqueline Bouvier: An Intinate Memoir
Book was in better condition than was described; time contract for delivery was accurate. Very satisfied with product and service.