Product Description

Drawing from recently declassified top-secret material, as well as revelatory eyewitness accounts, Secret Service records, and Jacqueline Kennedy's personal letters, bestselling biographer Barbara Leaming answers the question: what was it like to be Mrs. John F. Kennedy during the dramatic thousand days of the Kennedy presidency? Brilliantly researched, Leaming's poignant and powerful chronicle illuminates the tumultuous day-to-day life of a woman who entered the White House at age thirty-one, seven years into a complex and troubled marriage, and left at thirty-four after her husband's assassination. Revealing the full story of the interplay of sex and politics in Washington, Mrs. Kennedy will indelibly challenge our vision of this fascinating woman, and bring a new perspective to her crucial role in the Kennedy presidency.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #159946 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-24
• Released on: 2002-09-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Asserting that Jacqueline Kennedy's role in shaping her husband's presidency has been under-examined, Leaming (Katharine Hepburn) offers a corrective in this intimate look at a very private woman. Initially inclined to keep herself as much in the background as possible, says Leaming, Jacqueline Kennedy became an increasingly visible and vocal first lady as she realized how effective she could be as an image maker. It's in this capacity that Leaming convincingly depicts her as being instrumental in shaping the course of her husband's administration: charming, intuitive and socially savvy, she was clearly adept at recognizing precisely how to win over any given individual or audience, and to convince them to see her husband in a favorable light. While many world leaders, for example, were initially inclined to view John F. Kennedy as a playboy and an intellectual lightweight, Jackie skillfully massaged their perceptions until they began to take him more seriously and consequently to be much more responsive to his foreign policy agenda. But even as she worked hard on his behalf, Jack continually betrayed her with his legendary infidelities; the impact of this on Jackie's psyche is also a major theme here. Indeed, this is as much a psychological biography as a political one, and Leaming explores Jackie's complex and often painful inner life with subtlety and compassion. Unabashedly sympathetic toward her protagonist, Leaming provides a fascinating glimpse into the psychodynamics of one of the 20th century's most famous marriages, and her assertion that Jackie Kennedy deserves more credit than she's typically gotten for her husband's successes is persuasive. 32 pages b&w photos not seen by PW. (Nov.)Forecast: Leaming's bio of Katharine Hepburn was a bestseller, and one can predict generous sales for this title, which Leaming will promote in New York, Boston and Washington, D.C., including an appearance on the Today show.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Despite the welter of material on Jacqueline Kennedy, biographer Leaming has indeed produced an original and compelling portrait of Jackie as first lady. Leaming has plumbed primary sources heretofore unused (such as the letters of Harold Macmillan) and conducted interviews with sometime friends and associates, perhaps more willing to talk now that Jackie has died. Leaming makes a persuasive case for Jackie's substantive contribution as first lady in the role of diplomat. Jackie did the research and softened up visiting leaders, who then met the president already impressed with his administration. Leaming also explains Jackie's highly criticized absences from the White House: she was fleeing her husband's flagrant womanizing. Leaming's extensive documentation of his shameless conduct and his cruelty to his wife is breathtaking. (Her theories about why they married and why Jackie stood for such treatment are less dispositive.) The publisher plans a national publicity campaign. Public libraries should stock up, but they won't be able to meet the certain demand no matter how many copies they own. Cynthia Harrison, George Washington Univ., Washington, DC
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Since so many full-scale biographies have been written about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, it's not surprising that the focus seems to be turning to "niche biographies," which examine selected segments of Jackie's well-documented life in great detail. Leaming isolates the years Jackie spent as First Lady. Using Secret Service log notes, Leaming is able to track the Kennedys' movements virtually moment by moment, and she uses this information to detail what Jackie Kennedy's daily life was like in the White House. But Leaming also has a theory about the Kennedy marriage, and much of the new information she has gathered, including correspondence between the Kennedys and British prime minister Harold Macmillan, is used to support that theory. Leaming feels that Jack molded his marital relationship after the relationship he had with his favorite sister, the late Kathleen; consequently, the Kennedys' marriage was destined to be more familial than sexual. Although it's true Jack Kennedy was close to Kathleen in ways similar to how he interacted with Jackie, there were also vast differences between the two women--Kathleen was secure and sunny; Jackie was not. Unfortunately, Leaming tends to ignore these differences. She has much to say about the importance of Jackie's triumphant trip to Paris, where the first lady saw world leaders succumb to the power of her personality. Emboldened by this success, Leaming argues, Jackie was able to return to Washington and virtually stage-manage Jack's presidency when it came to dealing with foreign leaders. This seems stretching it. But whether you buy completely into Leaming's theories or not, she has clearly done her research, and she tells a darn good story. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Brilliant insight into the Kennedy marriage & presidency
I loved this book. I've never read anything before that made me feel like I really knew Jackie Kennedy - but this book makes me feel not only that I know what it would have been like to meet her, but also that I know how she felt at every single moment during her husband's presidency. For the first time I can understand why she stayed with a man who was constantly cheating on her, and how she could have continued to love him. The account of the assassination brought tears to my eyes. When you know the truth of what had been going on in the Kennedys' personal lives at that time, the events are even more heartbreaking.
The book also gave me an incredible insight into Jack Kennedy - how the same man could have bungled things so terribly at the Bay of Pigs and then become such a great leader during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The world was on the brink of nuclear war then, and this book gives a minute by minute account of how decisions were reached - which is very relevant now when the USA is facing another terrible crisis. If you want to understand how a real man can become a hero, faults and all, read this book.

AN INSIDE VIEW OF A FASCINATING LADY!
Readers know all about the political and public life of this incredible lady. However, when it comes to the private life of Jacqueline Kennedy, she has been seen from many different angles - quiet, reserved, independent, but always she revealed an image which exuded class and style.

It is very difficult for anyone to know what really goes on in someone's private life no matter how well one believes they know an individual; Jacqueline Kennedy's life is no exception. What this book does reveal is a better understanding of what actually motivated Jacqueline, where she appeared to find her inner personal strength and what might have "made her tick" from a psychological perspective. Was she really a materialistic woman? After all, aside from being the wife of one of history's most acclaimed U.S. Presidents, she did ultimately marry one of the world's wealthiest men who was many years her senior. Or, was Jacqueline simply a lonely lady, like many women, looking for all the love, acceptance and companionship she rightfully deserved? Only Jacqueline, herself, would be able to answer that question and, unfortunately, she is no longer here to tell us.

It seems ironic that books of this nature quite often surface after the person is deceased and no longer able to speak their own views. In this case, the reader must rely on Barbara Leaming's words and assessment. I did enjoy this book very much; however, the one downside was the rather grainy black and white photographs. Had coloured photography been used, it certainly would have added a more professional quality to the book, and, let's face it, Jacqueline was indeed a "quality woman". Jacqueline Kennedy was, and always will be, one of the world's most extraordinary women of her time.

St. Jacqueline
This book begins with an interesting premise -- that JFK modeled his relationship with his wife on his relationship with his dear sister, Kick. Fair enough, but where's the evidence? It's all speculation, and it may not be true. The book is well written and highly sympathetic to a woman I agree was gallant throughout her life, but it also strays wildly from other published Kennedy accounts without much substantiation. The Mary Meyer in this book bears NO resemblence to the one in the excellent Burleigh biography. Janet Auchincloss is treated much better in both Spoto's recent book on JBKO and the new JANET AND JACKIE book available on amazon. Rose Kennedy seems very different in the Laurence Leamer book on all the Kennedy women than she does here. And JFK himself? Are we to believe that he was a paper tiger, a playboy who would have been nothing without the brilliant behind-the-scenes machinations of his wife? And let's not forget that this wife -- who was referred to as a Dresden doll when she was named deb of the year by Cholly Knickerbocker and graced movie magazine covers from the moment she hit the national scene -- was supposedly crippled with doubts about her own appearance. The author says the couple was sexually incompatible; yet Jackie was pregnant five times in ten years. Also, if the President were merely looking for a partner he was compatible with, he could have easily settled on one mistress -- not the parade described here. Clearly his sexual escapades had more to do with his own psychology than with his relationship with his wife. I enjoyed the author's Hepburn bio very much and approached this book with great expectations. Alas, they were not met.