History remembers Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis as the consummate first lady, the nation's tragic widow, the tycoon's wife, and, of course, the quintessential embodiment of elegance. Her biographers, however, skip over just as equally an important stage in her life: her nearly twenty year long career as a book editor. "Jackie as Editor", written by one of the authors Jackie edited, is the first book to focus exclusively on this remarkable woman's editorial career. At the age of forty-six, one of the most famous women in the world went to work for the first time in twenty-two years. Greg Lawrence, who was one of her authors and had three of his books edited by Jackie, draws from interviews with more than 125 of her former collaborators and acquaintances in the publishing world to examine one of the twentieth centuries most enduring subjects of fascination through a new angle: her previously untouted skill in the career she chose. Over the last third of her life, Jackie would master a new industry, weather a very public professional scandal, and shepherd over a hundred books through the increasingly corporate halls of Viking and Doubleday. Away from the public eye, Jackie quietly defined life on her own terms. "Jackie as Editor" gives intimate new insights into the life of a complex and enigmatic woman who found fulfilment through her creative career during book publishing's legendary Golden Age.

Reviews

New York Times best-selling author Lawrence (Dancing on My Grave), whose last three books were edited by the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, here homes in on Onassis's 19-year career as an editor, at Viking and Doubleday. While previous biographies have credited the former First Lady as being influential in the arts, literary and otherwise, Lawrence's work gives audiences an in-depth view of the authors and books personally championed by Onassis, whose literary tastes were impeccable. Bernadette Dunne's (see Behind the Mike, LJ 5/15/09) sterling narration brings the work to life. Recommended for those interested in Kennedy and/or celebrity biographies as well as for anyone curious about the behind-the-scenes process at large publishing houses. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 9/1/10; the Griffin: St. Martin's pb will publish in July 2011.-Ed.]-Pam Kingsbury, Univ. of North Alabama, Florence (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

"A fascinating window into an aspect of Jackie Kennedy Onassis that few of us know."

--"USA Today"

"Greg Lawrence, whom the first lady edited, interviews her former colleagues and authors to paint a fascinating portrait of a woman who found a life in that most private of activities, reading."

--"Town & Country"

"Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis never wrote her memoirs, but you can tell a lot about the late First Lady's life by the books she loved, and those she edited in her nearly two decades as a publishing executive."

--"O" Magazine

"Charting Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis's impressive legacy as an editor at Viking and Doubleday, Lawrence draws on a wealth of sources, including interviews with more than 125 of her former publishing collaborators, and hundreds of notes left to the author by Onassis. He was also one of her authors, co-writing three books with his former wife, ballerina Gelsey Kirkland (including the controversial bestseller "Dancing on My Grave"). . . . This Onas