William Kuhn

An absolute delight of a debut novel by Kuhn--author of "Reading Jackie: Her Autobiography in Books"--that wittily imagines the kerfuffle that transpires when a bored Queen Elizabeth strolls out of the palace in search of a little fun, leaving behind a desperate team of courtiers who must find the missing Windsor before a national scandal erupts.

Mrs Queen Takes the Train

Swimming with Lord Byron

The Isabella Club

﻿What was it like to meet and talk to people who knew Jackie Kennedy Onassis well? Each of these eight people gave me a surprising look into what it was like to live and work in Jackie's world. 1 Nancy Tuckerman was Jackie's friend from boarding school and also her lifelong assistant. 2 Jackie was wary around Nan Talese, one of the most important people in publishing. Jackie was also envious of Nan. 3 Distantly related to her by marriage, Louis Auchincloss gave Jackie a hard time when she wanted to slip out of the spotlight. 4 Sarah Giles was an editor at Vanity Fair. She worked with Jackie in her apartment at 1040 Fifth Avenue on a book that got them both into trouble. 5 Ruth Ansel knew Jackie via man about town and major photographer Peter Beard. When Jackie had a rare chance to acquire an authorized biography of Audrey Hepburn, Jackie confessed to Ruth why she couldn't do it. 6 Rosamond Bernier gave sold-out lectures at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She was married to The New York Times'sart critic. Their wedding was at Philip Johnson's famous glass house in Connecticut. Nevertheless, Philip Johnson later proved treacherous both to Rosamond Bernier and to Jackie. 7 Francis Mason advised Jackie when she wanted to switch jobs. The story of how she ignored his advice and managed to remain friends with him is testimony to a high-spirited talent that the two of them shared. 8 Edith Welch and her husband went to India with Jackie. Jackie didn't always behave well on these trips, nor did Edith's husband.

Jackie Stories: Eight Friends of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

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. Based on archives and interviews with Jackie's authors, colleagues, and friends, Reading Jackie mines this significant period of her life to reveal both the serious and the mischievous woman underneath the glamorous public image. Though Jackie had a reputation for avoiding publicity, she willingly courted controversy in her books. She was the first editor to commission a commercially-successful book telling the story of Thomas Jefferson’s relationship with his female slave. Her publication of Gelsey Kirkland's attack on dance icon George Balanchine caused another storm. Jackie rarely spoke of her personal life, but many of her books ran parallel to, echoed, and emerged from her own experience. She was the editor behind bestsellers on the assassinations of Tsar Nicholas II and John Lennon, and in another book she paid tribute to the allure of Marilyn Monroe and Maria Callas. Her other projects take us into territory she knew well: journeys to Egypt and India, explorations of the mysteries of female beauty and media exploitation, into the minds of photographers, art historians, and the designers at Tiffany & Co. Many Americans regarded Jackie as the paragon of grace, but few knew her as the woman sitting on her office floor laying out illustrations, or flying to California to persuade Michael Jackson to write his autobiography. Reading Jackie provides a compelling behind-the-scenes look at Jackie at work: how she commissioned books and nurtured authors, as well as how she helped to shape stories that spoke to her strongly. Jackie is remembered today for her marriages to JFK and to Aristotle Onassis, but her real legacy is the books that reveal the tastes, recollections, and passions of an independent woman.

Her Autobiography in Books

Reading Jackie

Draws on archives and interviews with authors, colleagues, and friends to examine Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' time as an editor, revealing both the serious and the mischievous woman underneath the glamorous public image.

William Kuhn

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