My passion for the Kennedy family dates to seeing JFK in person as a young child. Shortly after his death, my mother purchased a children’s book about the 35th president, which I read repeatedly and still have in my extensive “Kennedy library.” It led me to pursue a professional career as a political scientist, specializing in the presidency and First Ladies. I now direct Presidential Studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, am a member of the Advisory Board of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library Foundation, and serve on the Board of the White House Historical Association, founded by Mrs. Kennedy in 1961.
I wrote
Jacqueline Kennedy: First Lady of the New Frontier
This set of 8 CDs and corresponding transcripts, with hours of interviews between Jackie Kennedy and the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., brings alive the First Lady’s memories of her husband, their marriage, and life in the White House, only a few months after JFK’s assassination. I will never forget listening to Jackie’s authentic voice as if I were sitting in the room with her as she relived the triumphs and tragedies of Camelot. Her description of the Cuban Missile Crisis, for example, when she told her husband, “I want to die with you,” is riveting.
To mark John F. Kennedy's centennial, celebrate the life and legacy of the 35th President of the United States.
In 1964, Jacqueline Kennedy recorded seven historic interviews about her life with John F. Kennedy. Now, for the first time, they can be read in this deluxe, illustrated eBook.
Shortly after President John F. Kennedy's assassination, with a nation deep in mourning and the world looking on in stunned disbelief, Jacqueline Kennedy found the strength to set aside her own personal grief for the sake of posterity and begin the task of documenting and preserving her husband's legacy. In January of…
Written by a bestselling biographer of British royals and statesmen, this story of John and Jacqueline Kennedy’s White House years is a sparkling account of their life at the pinnacle of power before tragedy ended the American fairy tale. Its rich detail and compelling narrative make it a genuine page-turner.
My mother took me to see Senator John F. Kennedy campaigning in our hometown of Louisville, KY, in October 1960, just before his selection as America’s youngest elected and first Catholic president. Although only 4 years of age, I was hooked on the excitement of presidents, the White House, and First Ladies, and I’ve been reading POTUS and FLOTUS biographies ever since. Smith’s accessible story of the Kennedys’ style and grace is my favorite.
In GRACE & POWER: THE PRIVATE WORLD OF THE KENNEDY WHITE HOUSE, New York Times bestselling author Sally Bedell Smith takes us inside the Kennedy White House with unparalleled access and insight. Having interviewed scores of Kennedy intimates, including many who have never spoken before, and drawing on letters and personal papers made available for the first time, Smith paints a richly detailed picture of the personal relationships behind the high purpose and poiltical drama of the twentieth century's most storied presidency. At the dawn of the 1960s, a forty-three-year-old president and his thirty-one-year-old first lady – the youngest couple…
I was a second-grader at St Albert the Great School in Louisville, KY, on November 22, 1963. It was the week before Thanksgiving, and we were coloring pictures of pilgrims. Suddenly, our principal appeared at the door. We were told that President Kennedy had been shot and that we were going to church to pray for him. Soon word came that the president had died. The next day’s newspaper pictured Mrs. Kennedy’s Secret Service agent, Clint Hill, jumping up on the trunk deck of the presidential limousine in Dallas, after the fatal shots, as he saved the First Lady from injury. This book about his association with Mrs. Kennedy is a tasteful rendition of his behind-the-scenes experiences with the First Lady. I was honored to meet this genuine hero in 2011.
Clint Hill will forever be remembered as the agent who jumped onto the car after President Kennedy was shot and clung to the sides of the car as it sped toward the hospital. Now, in Mrs. Kennedy and Me, he recounts those painful memories along with his fonder recollections of the First Lady's strength, class, dignity, and beauty during the time he was assigned as her personal agent.
Hill was by Mrs. Kennedy's side for some of the happiest moments in her life as well as the darkest. He was there for the birth of John, Jr. as well as…
This e-book by The Washington Post’s book editor is the moving account of Jackie’s heartbreaking loss of her and the president’s baby, Patrick, in August 1963. Always plagued by problematic pregnancies, resulting in a miscarriage and stillborn daughter in the 1950s, as First Lady Mrs. Kennedy hoped to give birth to her and the president’s third child (to join five-year-old Caroline and two-year-old John Jr.) in September 1963. But the baby arrived more than a month early, suffering from undeveloped lungs, and died within two days. Jackie and Jack were devastated. As they clung to each other in grief, the First Lady told her husband that she couldn’t bear to lose him. She would just three months later.
A sensitive portrait of how a profound tragedy changed one of America's most prominent families.
Their marriage is the subject of countless books. His presidency has been pored over minute by minute by historians. They lived their lives in the public eye and under a microscope that magnified all of their flaws, all of their scandals, all of their tragedies. Now Steven Levingston, nonfiction editor at the Washington Post, presents a devastating story in unprecedented detail, about a child John and Jackie Kennedy loved and lost. On August 7, 1963, heavily pregnant Jackie Kennedy collapsed, marking the beginning of a…
Many books have been written about Mrs. Kennedy’s post-White House life, especially her 1968 marriage to Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, her jet-set lifestyle, and her second widowhood as a successful New York book editor, but I find Leaming’s deeply researched look at how JFK’s horrific assassination may well have afflicted the former First Lady with PTSD to be as credible as it is moving.
For almost six decades, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis has fascinated people worldwide. The subject of numerous books and thousands of articles, her life has probably been documented in millions of words. And yet, there has always remained something mysterious, something private about this very public woman. With extraordinary skill and great sensitivity, Barbara Learning explores the seemingly magical world of Jackie's youth, her fairy-tale marriage to a wealthy and handsome Senator and Presidential candidate and her astonishing transformation into a deft political wife and unique First Lady. This spirited young woman's rejection of the idea of a safe marriage" as the…
In a mere thousand days, Jacqueline Kennedy created an entrancing public persona that has lasted six decades. My book is the first to focus largely on Mrs. Kennedy’s White House years, portraying a First Lady whose beguiling family, stylish couture, promotion of the arts, and charming diplomacy contributed to America’s ultimate victory as leader of the free world.
From a reluctant political wife, to one of the nation’s youngest presidential spouses, to that dark day in Dallas, Mrs. Kennedy’s glamor, fashion, beauty, and ability to master symbolism and imagery through her use of television and state entertainment, seared her legacy in the public’s psyche. Her layering of the Arthurian legend of Camelot over the “brief, shining” Kennedy presidency and its tragic end remains among her crowning achievements.
I’ve always been fascinated by group dynamics, large and small. Why things functioned well, why they didn’t. It’s possible my ability to empathize and use humor as a consensus-builder is the reason I was elected president of a homeowners association, a music production association, and even an agricultural group. Books were not particularly involved in this fascination! But in recent years, experiencing the breakdown of civility and trust in our political and cultural discourse, I’ve taken a more analytical view of the dynamics. These books, in their very different ways, have taught me lessons about life, understanding those with different beliefs, and finding ways to connect and move forward.
We’ve all experienced the overwhelming level of political and social divisiveness in our country. This invisible “virus” of negativity is, in part, the result of the name-calling and heated rhetoric that has become commonplace among commentators and elected leaders alike.
My book provides a clear perspective on the historical and modern-day causes of our nation's divisive state. It then proposes easy-to-understand solutions—an action plan for our elected leaders and citizens as well. Rather than a scholarly treatment of a complex topic, the book challenges us to take the obvious steps required of those living in a free democracy. And it…
Uniting the States of America: A Self-Care Plan for a Wounded Nation
Lyle Greenfield's "Uniting the States of America―A Self-Care Plan for a Wounded Nation" is a work of nonfiction and opinion. Incorporating the lessons of history and the ideas and wisdom of many, it is intended as both an educational resource and a call-to-action for citizens concerned about the politically and culturally divided state of our Union. A situation that has raised alarm for the very future of our democracy.
First, the book clearly identifies the causes of what has become a national crisis of belief in and love for our country. How the divisiveness and hostility rampant in our political…
