Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis never wrote a memoir, but she told her life story and revealed herself in intimate ways through the nearly 100 books she brought into print during the last two decades of her life as an editor at Viking and Doubleday.
William Kuhn is a biographer and historian. He is the author of three previous books, including, most recently, a controversial biography, The Politics of Pleasure- A Portrait of Benjamin Disraeli. His Henry and Mary Ponsonby- Life at the Court of Queen Victoria was a BBC Radio Four Book of the Week read by actor Geoffrey Palmer.
“A fascinating window into an aspect of Jackie Kennedy Onassis that
few of us know.”
—USA Today
“Sheds new light on the part of Jackie’s life that she most clearly
chose for herself. . . . An essential chapter in a remarkable life.
. . . What’s clear from [Reading Jackie] is that Jackie was a
remarkably perceptive and sensitive editor with a regard for
writing and a sense of what makes writing good—far more than just a
socialite in an office with a drop-dead Rolodex.”
—Los Angeles Times
“This book shows Jackie not as a First Lady or fashion icon, but as
an intellectual, well-read woman.”
—New York Daily News
“Jackie O loved powerful men, but her passion was for writers. . .
. [Kuhn] reveals some fascinating facts about the literary
Jackie.”
—O, The Oprah Magazine
“William Kuhn reveals the Jackie I knew as a person and
professional: serious, smart, intuitive about ideas and aesthetics,
but also down to earth in the sense of understanding the potential
audience for a book. In Reading Jackie I learned so much about her
I didn’t know, and Kuhn tells the story with such flowing grace of
phrase and structure. A splendid work.”
—Bill Moyers
“Unexpectedly and intelligently dishy. . . . Quite a fascinating
portrait of a complex woman, who had the interests and enthusiasms
of her class and was allowed to indulge those passions with
singular force and focus.”
—The Boston Globe
“It is enlightening to see [Jackie] not simply as the stylish wife
of two powerful men, but also as a career woman who oversaw the
publication of close to 100 books in her two decades at Viking and
Doubleday, and to know she was greatly admired by both her peers
and the authors she edited.”
—The Star-Ledger
“Absorbing. . . . Fascinating. . . . A treat for bibliophiles and
Jackiephiles—and especially for those whom those interests
overlap.”
—Richmond Times-Dispatch
“Enlightening and surprising. . . . Impeccably researched. . . .
Provides insights that would never have been available to
outsiders.”
—Buffalo News
“Embedded in the book is a fascinating look at the vanities of New
York publishing in the late 20th century: how books got acquired,
edited and sold; how the tastes of a few individuals shaped reading
habits of the masses.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“Reading Jackie illuminates a literary life. . . . The portrait
that emerges is of a highly cultured, witty woman who loved ballet,
art and history and developed a deep knowledge of many topics.”
—Fort Worth Star-Telegram
“[Kuhn] makes the compelling argument that Onassis was much more
intellectual and thoughtful than many portrayals in the media
suggested.”
—Town and Country
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