Carl Sferrazza Anthony

The Coming of Age of Jackie Bouvier Kennedy

Camera Girl

A major new biography of the politically powerful forerunner of Eleanor Roosevelt and Hillary Clinton. Deeply researched and richly told, Florence Harding reveals the never-before-told story of First Lady Florence Harding's phenomenal rise to power. The daughter of an abusive father in small-town Ohio, mother at a young age to an illegitimate child, Florence Harding saw her escape in Warren Harding, and became the driving force behind his ascent to one of the most scandal-ridden presidencies in United States history.Preeminent First Ladies biographer Carl Sferrazza Anthony not only captures the drama of Florence Harding's personality, but he uses the White House to bring to life Jazz Age America -- a world of speakeasies and Miss America, Babe Ruth, Al Jolson, and the rise of Hollywood. He shows how Florence's friendship with Evalyn McLean, the morphine-addicted owner of the Hope Diamond and The Washington Post was one of the defining bonds in her public life. With newly unsealed medical information, Florence Harding finally unfolds the mystery of whether the First Lady poisoned the President, whose death occurred seventy-five years ago. Florence Harding is a fascinating and informative look at a lost chapter in American history.

The First Lady, The Jazz Age, And The Death Of America's Most Scandalous President

Florence Harding

An illuminating new biography of the young Jackie Bouvier Kennedy that covers her formative adventures abroad in Paris; her life as a writer and photographer at a Washington, DC, newspaper; and her romance with a dashing, charismatic Massachusetts congressman who shared her intellectual passion. Camera Girl brings to cinematic life Jackie’s years as a young, single woman trying to figure out who she wanted to become. Chafing at the expectations of her family and the societal limitations placed on women in that era, Jackie pursued her dream career as a writer. Set primarily during the years of 1949 to 1953, when Jackie was in her early twenties, the book recounts in heretofore unrevealed detail the story of her late college years and her early adulthood as a working woman. Before she met Jack Kennedy, Jacqueline Bouvier was the Washington Times-Herald’s “Inquiring Camera Girl,” posing compelling questions to members of the public on the streets of DC and snapping their photos with her unwieldy Graflex camera. She then fashioned the results into a daily column, of which six hundred were published. Carl Sferrazza Anthony, a historian and leading expert on First Ladies, draws on these columns and previously unseen archives of Jackie’s writings from this time, along with insights gleaned from interviews he conducted with the former First Lady’s friends, colleagues, and family members. Camera Girl offers a fresh perspective on the woman later known as Jacqueline Kennedy and Jackie O, introducing us to the headstrong, self-assured young woman who went on to be one of the world’s most famous people. It’s a glamorous and surprisingly hard-charging story of a person determined to define herself, told with admiration, empathy, and journalistic rigor.

An intimate look into the world of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis -- from the people who knew her best In As We Remember Her, Carl Sferrazza Anthony, a historian of first ladies, paints the most personal, revealing portrait of Jackie to date -- one that shows her not in theshadow of her famous husbands or frozen in the light of flashbulbs but as she viewed herself over the years and as she was known by those closest to her. To understand Jackie on her own terms, Anthony conducted exhaustive interviews with an impressive collection of Jackie's friends, family members, and colleagues -- many of whom speak here about her publicly for the first time -- and drew upon rarely published but quite revealing autobiographical accounts. Those interviewed include Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator Ted Kennedy, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Joan Kennedy, Lady Bird Johnson, former senator John Glenn, Pamela Harriman, Kitty Carlisle Hart, Gloria Steinem, Yusha Auchincloss, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., John Kenneth Galbraith, Robert McNamara, Ted Sorenson, Pierre Salinger, Rose Styron, former senator Claiborne Pell, and George Plimpton. And from previously sealed oral histories housed in the Kennedy Library, we hear from Jackie's mother, Janet Auchincloss, and lifetime confidante, Nancy Tuckerman, among others. With never-before-seen family photographs and letters throughout, Carl Sferrazza Anthony has created a beautiful tribute to the private woman who forever captured the world's attention.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in the Words of Her Family and Friends

As We Remember Her

Provides information about the families who have lived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue from President John Adams to President Clinton, including a look at the various celebrations held at the White House from weddings to Halloween parties.

Carl Sferrazza Anthony

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