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.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Nancy Tuckerman were friends over seven decades. Nancy almost never talked to people writing books about Jackie. She made an exception for me because I was working with her former colleagues. She and I met for the first time at the Red Lion Inn on a cold day in February. She was wearing a plain brown sweater and hiding behind a newspaper. At first she was stiff with me. But at lunch the young waiter poured her a cold cup of coffee. When he stepped away we both laughed That was how we began a friendlier and franker conversation that lasted ten years. This is a revised and expanded version of my article “Inside Jackie O’s Longest, Most Complicated Friendship,” VANITY FAIR, July 2019. Nancy's insights about Jackie are on every page, but this is also the story of Nancy Tuckerman herself. As I'm telling the story, it's sometimes about me too.

Despite hundreds of books and thousands of articles on Jackie Kennedy, surprisingly little is known about her mother's role in her life and achievements. Often dismissed as a social climber who faded into the woodwork after she divorced Jackie's father-the dashing, disreputable "Black Jack" Bouvier-and married the rich Hugh D. Auchincloss, Janet not only played a pivotal part in Jackie's own wedding to JFK, but often served as a stand-in for Jackie during the White House years, and helped her cope with John and Caroline after the assassination. The only book to explore this fascinating mother-daughter relationship, Janet & Jackie is filled with stories that shed new light on the personal life of an American icon.

"Our Jackie: Public Claims on a Private Life chronicles the evolving media coverage of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, tracing interpretations of her public persona, from campaign wife, first lady, and revered widow to a jet setter, career woman, and, ultimately, treasured national icon"--

Now the subject of a new film directed by Pablo Larrain, "Jackie", starring Natalie Portman Acclaimed biographer Sarah Bradford explores the life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, the woman who has captivated the public for more than five decades, in a definitive portrait that is both sympathetic and frank. With an extraordinary range of candid interviews—many with people who have never spoken in such depth on record before—Bradford offers new insights into the woman behind the public persona. She creates a coherent picture out of Jackie’s tumultuous and cosmopolitan life—from the aristocratic milieu of Newport and East Hampton to the Greek isles, from political Washington to New York’s publishing community. She probes Jackie’s privileged upbringing, her highly public marriages, and her roles as mother and respected editor, and includes rare photos from private collections to create the most complete account yet written of this legendary life. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis's life is once again the center of interest with the 2016 release of the Pablo Larrain movie "Jackie", starring Natalie Portman.

One of The New Yorker’s Best Books of 2023 “One of the most detailed, nuanced portraits of Jackie to date.” —The Washington Post An illuminating and “wholly refreshing” (David Maraniss, New York Times bestselling author) biography of the young Jackie Bouvier Kennedy that covers her formative adventures abroad in Paris; her life as a writer and photographer in Washington, DC; and her romance with a dashing, charismatic Massachusetts congressman who shared her intellectual passion. Camera Girl “shines with wit and intelligence” (Library Journal, starred review) as it brings to 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 John F. 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 her 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. “For anyone of any age, the Jackie in Camera Girl offers an example of intentional living” (Hillary Rodham Clinton).

As her own words prove well, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis could be at times funny, buoyant, candid, irreverent, and of course poignant, too. This collection of quotes shares her thoughts on marriage, family, political life and ambition, publicity, privacy, and more as she confided them to intimate friends, family, and interviewers alike. Memories of her childhood, her love for Jack, her children and grandchildren, the Kennedys, her often misunderstood marriage to Aristotle Onassis, her years as a widow, and her later companionship with Maurice Tempelsman are all represented here, as are some rather remarkable correspondences with the Johnsons, the Nixons, and the Khrushchevs. A sampling of her wit and wisdom: "I was a tomboy. I decided to learn to dance and I became feminine." "Well, I think my biggest achievement is that, after going through a rather difficult time, I consider myself comparatively sane." "When Harvard men say they have graduated from Radcliffe, then we've made it." "If Jack proved to be the greatest president of the century and his children turned out badly, it would be a tragedy." Forty years ago, when the nation was coming out from under a period of mourning, Bill Adler edited The Kennedy Wit and in so doing helped the world remember a man and a president, not just a sorrowful event. To commemorate the tenth anniversary of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis's death, he has edited yet another book of quotes celebrating life -- this time the life of Jackie. The accompanying DVD documentary is considered by many to be the definitive film biography of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and was produced by CBS News Productions for Arts & Entertainment Network.

In memory of William C. & Maude E. Wilson given by Lora & Janet Smith, Gary & Karen Smith White.