Mrs Kennedy or Pursuit

Mrs. Kennedy: The Missing History of the Kennedy Years

Author: Barbara Leaming

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.

Kirkus Reviews

"The famously private Mrs. kennedy has met her match and is herein revealed-along with her husband and his administration-respectfully, but thoroughly, by an author possessed.

With admirable obsession, biographer Leaming (Marilyn Monroe, 1998, etc.) has plumbed the vaults of the many official libraries (JFK's, LBJ's, Oxford's Bodleian) and consulted with Secret Service personnel, Kennedy friends, and White House log books to create a convincing day-by-day chronicle of the Kennedy marriage and presidency. Armed with a remarkable level of detail and turning an eye toward psychological anaylsis, the author briefly explores her subject's childhood, and then dives into the Kennedy's life together. In Leaming's view, the personal and political spheres of the Kennedys are inseparable. Thus, the Bay of Pigs fiasco is explained as a son attempting to compensate for his ambassador father's perceived weakness when, decades before, the elder Kennedy coundeled conciliation in the face of Hitler. The U.S. involvement in Vietnam is traced back to Jack's inability to focus on foreign affairs after the death of his newborn son. Meanwhile, Jackie's determination to be a good wife is what spurred her to enter the world's stage. Leaming paints a portrait of a political creature whose every action was premeditated, from her whispery voice designed to project a non-threatening femininity, to her decision to quit Washington every weekend in order to allow Jack to conduct his extramarital affairs out of her sight. Full of such interesting theories, Leaming is particularly convincing when arguing that Jackie was to Jack nothing so much as the perfect replacement for his beloved sister, Kick, who died very young. The standard tasty details of dress, design, and glittering social circle are not neglected; indeed, Jackie's sense of style writ large is seen as her particular genius, equally useful for charming world leaders and the crowd back home.

Admirably detailed, stunningly successful, and likely to become the definitive biography of the Kennedy marriage, with all the intimacy and international scope implied."

Book Magazine

While Pottker's Janet & Jackie is a sort of hoopskirt in a high wind—loose, inappropriate and uncontrollable—Leaming's Mrs. Kennedy, by comparison, is a marvel of clarity, intelligence, sympathy and sound research. We see how a young woman in her twenties, at first dreading the hoopla of high office and high visibility, gathered her courage and prepared meticulously to charm such leaders as Jawaharlal Nehru, Charles de Gaulle and Nikita Khrushchev, greatly enhancing her husband's popularity and effectiveness. Regarding a state dinner with de Gaulle at which Jackie dismissed the official translator and served as a whispery, sexy intermediary between the two presidents, Leaming writes, "She appeared to enjoy the political game as never before, and the meaning she had once sought in her own life as an antidote to the emptiness and insularity of her mother's existence seemed attainable at last."

Jackie's effort to find a way of living that preserved her dignity and sense of worth despite her husband's chronic infidelity—and her struggle to figure out what was required of her, and brilliantly, to fulfill that expectation—makes her a fascinating subject. Jackie's story is greatly enhanced by Leaming's generosity of spirit and imagination. She observes, for example, that Jackie read and delighted in accounts of French court scandals but must have been dismayed by the inescapable parallels that could be drawn.

For Jackie, the White House, which she had redecorated to national acclaim, represented not simply public triumph but private shame. In the past, she had remained at home while her husband pursued casual sex elsewhere. "Now," Leamingobserves, "in order to guard against being confronted with things she preferred to avoid, she was going to have to take active steps to make it possible for him to cheat." At virtually the same moment that she left the White House for weekends in the country, trusted cronies were ferrying in young women with whom the president had sexual relations. Mary Meyer, a louche, ambitious woman in her forties who prided herself on her recklessness and planned to introduce the president to LSD, was a frequent partner.

Leaming, who thinks of the White House years as a period when JFK was engaged in "a personal struggle against unimaginable odds for a moral compass," also documents the president's habitual use of methamphetamines provided by Dr. Max Jacobson, whose patients called him Dr. Feel Good. Her aim is not simply to dredge up scandal but to show the factors that could impair judgment at crucial junctures.

Throughout this volume, Leaming's concern is to match private experience with public events, including the Cuban Missile Crisis and the disastrous diplomatic summit with Khrushchev in Vienna. These were moments when the president floundered, at the mercy of events and of advisers with their own agendas. But if our view of him is diminished by Leaming's account, respect for Jackie can only be increased. As when she disregarded the advice of the Secret Service, who feared another assassination attempt, and walked behind her fallen husband's cortege, Jackie did what the American public most loved her for. She found a brave and appropriate gesture to convey the best in her own nature. Leaming is far too wise to indulge in hero worship, but she is equally too wise to overlook or diminish what is heroic in her subject. For that, and a great deal else, readers must be grateful.
—Penelope Mesic

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.

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 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

The famously private Mrs. Kennedy has met her match and is herein revealed-along with her husband and his administration-respectfully but thoroughly, by an author possessed. With admirable obsession, biographer Leaming (Marilyn Monroe, 1998, etc.) has plumbed the vaults of the many official libraries (JFK's, LBJ's, Oxford's Bodleian) and consulted with Secret Service personnel, Kennedy friends, and White House log books to create a convincing day-by-day chronicle of the Kennedy marriage and presidency. Armed with a remarkable level of detail and turning an eye toward psychological analysis, the author briefly explores her subject's childhood, and then dives into the Kennedys' life together. In Leaming's view, the personal and political spheres of the Kennedys are inseparable. Thus, the Bay of Pigs fiasco is explained as a son attempting to compensate for his ambassador father's perceived weakness when, decades before, the elder Kennedy counseled conciliation in the face of Hitler.The US involvement in Vietnam is traced back to Jack's inability to focus on foreign affairs after the death of his newborn son. Meanwhile, Jackie's determination to be a good wife is what spurred her to enter the world's stage. Leaming paints a portrait of a political creature whose every action was premeditated, from her whispery voice designed to project a non-threatening femininity, to her decision to quit Washington every weekend in order to allow Jack to conduct his extramarital affairs out of her sight. Full of such interesting theories, Leaming is particularly convincing when arguing that Jackie was to Jack nothing so much as the perfect replacement for his beloved sister, Kick, who died very young. Thestandard tasty details of dress, design, and glittering social circle are not neglected; indeed, Jackie's sense of style writ large is seen as her particular genius, equally useful for charming world leaders and the crowd back home. Admirably detailed, stunningly successful, and likely to become the definitive biography of the Kennedy marriage, with all the intimacy and international scope implied. Book-of-the-Month Club/Literary Guild/Doubleday Book Club/History Book Club/Quality Paperback Book Club alternate selection

Table of Contents:

	Author's Note	ix
Chapter 1	Modus Vivendi	1
Chapter 2	The Presidency Begins	33
Chapter 3	Tell Me About Macmillan	51
Chapter 4	A Family Drama	71
Chapter 5	The Magic Is Lost	89
Chapter 6	Hall of Mirrors	111
Chapter 7	In Her Own Right	130
Chapter 8	Goddess of Power	173
Chapter 9	Eyes in the Portraits	194
Chapter 10	A Critical Moment	217
Chapter 11	Valediction	237
Chapter 12	Indiscretion	256
Chapter 13	Private Grief	286
Chapter 14	A Study in Betrayal	303
Chapter 15	Alone	328
Chapter 16	My Dear Friend	351
	Epilogue	356
	Acknowledgments	361
	Notes on Sources	365
	Index	393

New interesting textbook: Economia direttiva: Applicazioni, strategie e tattiche

Pursuit: The Chase, Capture, Persecution, and Surprising Release of Confederate President Jefferson Davis

Author: Clint Johnson

While much has been written about the hunt for John Wilkes Booth, much less has been written about the efforts to apprehend Confederate President Jefferson Davis in the days following the dissolution of the Confederacy, and the subsequent attempt to try him for treason. In the only book to tell the definitive story of Davis's chase, capture, imprisonment, and release, journalist and Civil War writer Clint Johnson brings this chapter in our nation's history to vivid life, and paints a fascinating portrait of one of American history's most complex and enduring figures.

In the vulnerable weeks following the end of the War and Abraham Lincoln's assassination, some in President Andrew Johnson's administration burned to exact revenge against Davis. Trumping up charges of conspiracy to murder Lincoln and treason against the Union, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton ordered cavalry after Davis. After a chase through North and South Carolina and Georgia, Davis was captured on May 10, 1865. The former United States Senator and Mexican War hero was imprisoned for two years in Fortress Monroe, Virginia, where he was subjected to torture and humiliation-but never brought to trial. Remarkably, the Johnson administration knew Davis was innocent of all crimes before he was even arrested.

With a keen eye for the period's detail, as well as a Southerner's insight, Johnson sheds new light on Davis's time on the run, his treatment while imprisoned, his surprising release from custody, and his eventual exoneration-exposing the powerful political forces involved, and their lasting impact. Johnson draws on extensive official historical documents as well as countless archived private materials such asdiaries, letters, and private papers. With the 200th anniversary of Davis's birth in 2008, the time has never been better for a compelling account of such a defining episode of the Civil War.

Armchair Interviews

Meticulously researched and well written.

What People Are Saying

Rod Gragg
"A master storyteller exposes one of the most fascinating and overlooked dramas in Civil War history."--(Rod Gragg, author of Covered With Glory and Confederate Goliath)

Chris Hartley
"Using solid research, an engaging style and a novelist's eye for details, Clint Johnson has produced a vivid, fresh and entertaining look at Jefferson Davis's flight and capture. This book is a welcome addition to the literature on the final days of the Confederacy and the fate of its one and only chief executive."--(Chris Hartley, author of Stuart's Tarheels: James B. Gordon and His North Carolina Cavalry, as well as a forthcoming book on George Stoneman's 1865 raid)

Marc Leepson
"If there was one Civil War historian I would choose to tell the story of Jefferson Davis, it would be Clint Johnson. In these pages Johnson brings the mercurial Confederate President alive with a riveting and revealing narrative that sheds important new light on one of the pivotal figures in American history. Highly recommended."--(Marc Leepson, the author of Desperate Engagement, Flag: An American Biography, and Saving Monticello)

David J. Eicher
"Clint Johnson's Pursuit is a spellbinding tale of the last days of the Confederacy. The author's crisp prose and solid research give readers a riveting view of Jefferson Davis's last days in power."--(David J. Eicher, author of The Longest Night and Dixie Betrayed)