About the Author

Barbara Leaming is the author of the critically acclaimed "Orson Welles" and the "New York Times" bestseller "Katharine Hepburn." Her articles have appeared in "Vanity Fair" and "The New York Times Magazine." She lives in Connecticut.

Reviews

Kirkus Reviews (starred) Likely to become the definitive biography of the Kennedy marriage.

Bonnie Angelo The Washington Post Bona fide new material...meticulous research...achingly moving.

Deirdre Donahue USA Today Leaming paints a moving portrait of Jackie as she tried valiantly to make her marriage work and find a place for herself and her gifts.

Liz Smith New York Post A fascinating work.

Kirkus Reviews (starred) Likely to become the definitive biography of the Kennedy marriage.
Bonnie Angelo The Washington Post Bona fide new material...meticulous research...achingly moving.
Deirdre Donahue USA Today Leaming paints a moving portrait of Jackie as she tried valiantly to make her marriage work and find a place for herself and her gifts.
Liz Smith New York Post A fascinating work.

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.