She's the real power behind the Kennedy name. Now, for the first time, her secrets are exposed.. She ruthlessly mocked her sister-in-law Jacke's breathy voice and often referred to her as "the Debutante" She kept a lengthy "enemies list" and blackballed those who she felt were disloyal or critical of the Kennedys She turned Hickory Hill into an eerie shrine that included life-sized photos of Bobby in closets that startled visitors She made one fo the most difficult decisions of her life when she agreed to "pull the plug" on Bobby as he lay dying after being shot by Sirhan Sirhan She distanced herself from her own Skakel family, whose scandals exceeded those of even the Kennedys.
A portrait of Ethel Skakel Kennedy, the widow of Robert Kennedy, reveals a driven woman with a tragic family history and with great political influence
"For four years, from the election of John Fitzgerald Kennedy in November 1960 until after the election of Lyndon Johnson in 1964, Clint Hill was the Secret Service agent assigned to guard the glamorous and intensely private Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. During those four years, he went from being a reluctant guardian to a fiercely loyal watchdog and, in many ways, her closest friend"--
Noting how Jackie's celebrity and devotion to privacy have for years precluded a more serious treatment, Perry's story illuminates Kennedy's immeasurable impact on the institution of the first lady. Perry illustrates the complexities of Jacqueline Bouvier's marriage to John F. Kennedy, and shows how she transformed herself from a reluctant political wife to an effective, confident presidential partner. Perry is especially illuminating in tracing the first lady's mastery of political symbolism and imagery, along with her use of television and state entertainment to disseminate her work to a global audience.
Manipulative, ruthless, and cunning where the clan's interests are concerned, Ethel has maintained a devotion to Bobby's memory that is obsessive. She is a woman with enormous clout, and her wrath has been felt at the highest levels of Washington's power elite.
New York Times bestselling author Barbara Leaming answers the question: What was it like to be Mrs. John F. Kennedy during the dramatic thousand days of the Kennedy presidency? Here for the first time is the full story of the extravagant interplay of sex and politics that constitutes one of modern history's most spectacular dramas. 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.
A "coming-of-age memoir by a young woman who spent thirteen years as Jackie Kennedy's personal assistant and occasional nanny--and the lessons about life and love she learned from the glamorous [former] first lady"--Amazon.com.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. inherited his assassinated father's piercing blue eyes and Brahmin style, earning a reputation as the nation's foremost environmental activist and lawyer - the "toxic avenger" - battling corporate polluters. But in this, the most revelatory portrait ever of a Kennedy, Oppenheimer places Bobby Jr., leader of the third generation of America's royal family, under a journalistic microscope, exploring his compulsions and addictions - from his use of drugs to his philandering that he himself blamed on what he termed his "lust demons," and tells the shocking behind-the-scenes story of the curious events leading to the tragic May 2012 suicide of his second of his three wives, mother of four of his six children. If his late cousin JFK Jr. was once dubbed "Prince Charming," RFK Jr. might have earned the sobriquet, "The Big Bad Wolf."Based on scores of exclusive, candid on-the-record interviews, public and private records, and correspondence, Jerry Oppenheimer paints a balanced, objective, but often shocking portrait of this virtually unaccounted for scion of the Kennedy dynasty. Like his slain father, the iconic senator and presidential hopeful, RFK Jr. was destined for political greatness. Why it never happened is revealed in this first-ever biography of him. *Available October
A Portrait of an American Icon Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis-better known as Jackie O. to the tabloids, "the deb" to the Kennedy clan, and the 35th First Lady to historians-is easily one of the most recognizable Presidential wives. She remains the model of the proper American woman. But what was Jackie O. hiding behind those big, dark shades? &break;From her New York society upbringing to her time in the White House to her days spent as a Doubleday editor, this is the ultimate biography of a woman everyone recognized but few knew. Did you know that: &break; Her first job was as the "Inquiring Camera Girl" for the Washington Times-Herald? &break; Before she started dating Jack Kennedy, she hadn't even voted in a national election? &break; She was the only family member strong enough to remove Robert Kennedy from life-support measures after he was shot? &break; She asked Rose Kennedy for her blessing before she married Aristotle Onassis? &break; She was American royalty and is now an American icon. The Everything Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Book delivers everything you always wanted to know about this captivating woman.
The instant New York Times bestseller | Named one of the ten best books of 2019 by People magazine A chance encounter at a summer party on Martha’s Vineyard blossomed into an improbable but enduring friendship. Carly Simon and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis made an unlikely pair—Carly, a free and artistic spirit still reeling from her recent divorce, searching for meaning, new love, and an anchor; and Jackie, one of the most celebrated, meticulous, unknowable women in American history. Nonetheless, over the next decade their lives merged in inextricable and complex ways, and they forged a connection deeper than either could ever have foreseen. The time they spent together—lingering lunches and creative collaborations, nights out on the town and movie dates—brought a welcome lightness and comfort to their days, but their conversations often veered into more profound territory as they helped each other navigate the shifting waters of life lived, publicly, in the wake of great love and great loss. An intimate, vulnerable, and insightful portrait of the bond that grew between two iconic and starkly different American women, Carly Simon’s Touched by the Sun is a chronicle, in loving detail, of the late friendship she and Jackie shared. It is a meditation on the ways someone can unexpectedly enter our lives and change its course, as well as a celebration of kinship in all its many forms. "In Touched by the Sun, Simon reveals an easy-going, playful side of [Jackie] that most people never saw — sneaking a smoke during intermission at the opera, frolicking in the ocean off the Vineyard . . . The woman who would later edit several of Simon’s children’s books was 'just fun to be around.'" —Juliet Pennington, The Boston Globe
