Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy

by Caroline Kennedy Narrated by Jacqueline Kennedy, Michael Beschloss, Caroline Kennedy, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.

Overview

Celebrate the life and legacy of the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, with this expansive illustrated book which includes interviews, recordings and other exclusive materials.

To mark John F. Kennedy's centennial, celebrate the life and legacy of the 35th President of the United States.

In 1964, Jacqueline Kennedy recorded seven historic interviews about her life with John F. Kennedy. Now, for the first time, they can be read in this deluxe, illustrated eBook.

Shortly after President John F. Kennedy's assassination, with a nation deep in mourning and the world looking on in stunned disbelief, Jacqueline Kennedy found the strength to set aside her own personal grief for the sake of posterity and begin the task of documenting and preserving her husband's legacy. In January of 1964, she and Robert F. Kennedy approved a planned oral-history project that would capture their first-hand accounts of the late President as well as the recollections of those closest to him throughout his extraordinary political career. For the rest of her life, the famously private Jacqueline Kennedy steadfastly refused to discuss her memories of those years, but beginning that March, she fulfilled her obligation to future generations of Americans by sitting down with historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., and recording an astonishingly detailed and unvarnished account of her experiences and impressions as the wife and confidante of John F. Kennedy. The tapes of those sessions were then sealed and later deposited in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum upon its completion, in accordance with Mrs. Kennedy's wishes.

The resulting eight and a half hours of material comprises a unique and compelling record of a tumultuous era, providing fresh insights on the many significant people and events that shaped JFK's presidency but also shedding new light on the man behind the momentous decisions. Here are JFK's unscripted opinions on a host of revealing subjects, including his thoughts and feelings about his brothers Robert and Ted, and his take on world leaders past and present, giving us perhaps the most informed, genuine, and immediate portrait of John Fitzgerald Kennedy we shall ever have. Mrs. Kennedy's urbane perspective, her candor, and her flashes of wit also give us our clearest glimpse into the active mind of a remarkable First Lady.

In conjunction with the fiftieth anniversary of President Kennedy's Inauguration, Caroline Kennedy and the Kennedy family are now releasing these beautifully restored recordings on CDs with accompanying transcripts. Introduced and annotated by renowned presidential historian Michael Beschloss, these interviews will add an exciting new dimension to our understanding and appreciation of President Kennedy and his time and make the past come alive through the words and voice of an eloquent eyewitness to history.

Editorial Reviews

FEBRUARY 2012 - AudioFile

The value of this book lies not in its audio quality but in the history it conveys. It’s fascinating to hear Jacqueline Kennedy speak so reverently about her husband, but she has his legacy on her mind and in her heart. The book includes several voices. First, Caroline Kennedy and Michael Beschloss provide serviceable opening remarks in the foreword and introduction, respectively. We then move on to the actual conversations between Schlesinger and Mrs. Kennedy. They speak informally, and the sound level is sometimes too low, but their interview is enlightening, and Kennedy is an urbane, sophisticated, well-spoken subject. Schlesinger has a professorial tone; Mrs. Kennedy has terrific diction and seems delighted to be able to talk about her husband to a family friend. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

FEBRUARY 2012 - AudioFile

The value of this book lies not in its audio quality but in the history it conveys. It’s fascinating to hear Jacqueline Kennedy speak so reverently about her husband, but she has his legacy on her mind and in her heart. The book includes several voices. First, Caroline Kennedy and Michael Beschloss provide serviceable opening remarks in the foreword and introduction, respectively. We then move on to the actual conversations between Schlesinger and Mrs. Kennedy. They speak informally, and the sound level is sometimes too low, but their interview is enlightening, and Kennedy is an urbane, sophisticated, well-spoken subject. Schlesinger has a professorial tone; Mrs. Kennedy has terrific diction and seems delighted to be able to talk about her husband to a family friend. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170003112
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	12/27/2011
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	1,170,014

Read an Excerpt

In 1964, as part of an oral history project on the life and career of John F. Kennedy, my mother sat down with Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., to share her memories and insights. Recorded less than four months after the death of her husband, they represent a gift to history and a labor of love on her part. In order to treat them with the appropriate respect, my children and I took very seriously the decision to publish them now, in connection with the fiftieth anniversary of my father's presidency. The moment seems right—enough time has passed so that they can be appreciated for their unique insight, yet the Kennedy presidency is still within living memory for many who will find her observations illuminating. I hope too that younger generations who are just learning about the 1960s will find these reminiscences a useful introduction to how history is made, and will be inspired to give back to this country that has given us all so much.

Given the important role Jacqueline Kennedy played in the presidency of John F. Kennedy and its aftermath, it seemed a disservice to let her perspective remain absent from the public and scholarly debate that would accompany the fiftieth anniversary of the Kennedy administration. Fifty years seems a sufficient time for passions to have cooled, yet recent enough that the world described still has much to teach us. The sense of time passing was made more acute by the loss of my uncle Teddy and my aunt Eunice in 2009, by Ted Sorensen in 2010, and my uncle Sarge in January 2011.

But, before making the final decision, I asked my children to read the transcripts and tell me what they thought. Their reactions were not so different from my own. They found the conversations dated in many ways—but fascinating in many more. They loved the stories about their grandfather, and how insightful yet irreverent their grandmother was. They were puzzled by some of Arthur Schlesinger's questions—personal rivalries he pursued and particular issues that have not stood the test of time. They wished that he had asked more questions about her.

But they came away with the same conclusions that I had reached—there was no significant reason to put off publication and no one speaks better for my mother than she does herself.

Excerpted from the Hyperion book, JACQUELINE KENNEDY: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy. Copyright © 2011 Caroline Kennedy, John Schlossberg, Rose Schlossberg and Tatiana Schlossberg. All rights reserved. Available wherever books are sold.

Videos