Jacqueline Bouvier: An Intimate Memoir [Paperback]

As a child, author John H. Davis spent summers with Jackie and the Bouviers and was like a member of the family. In this, his third book on the aristocratic clan, Davis covers Jackie's life until her first wedding. Mr. Davis possessed great disdain for Jackie's mother and includes many nasty details about her--including how she hired a young woman to trap her husband in verifiable infidelity. He also writes that a close friend of Jackie's father later moved to Texas and became the "principal mentor and friend" to Lee Harvey Oswald--a revelation that puts a new twist on the conspiracy theory. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Memoirs written by relatives of the rich and famous often try to settle scores or exploit distant ties. Not so that of Davis, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis's first cousin, who has written several books on famed clans (The Guggenheims) and on his relatives by marriage (The Kennedys), as well as on his own folk (The Bouviers). Davis's mother, now 90, is Maude Bouvier, Jacqueline's aunt. Here he focuses on Jacqueline's (he never calls her Jackie) childhood and adolescence and concludes with her marriage to John F. Kennedy. He writes from the point of view of a contemporary who shared summers at Grampy Jack Bouvier's magnificent East Hampton estate. Davis watched Jacqueline as she grew into an accomplished rider and a charming, self-contained young woman. He also watched as her parents, "Black" Jack Bouvier and Janet Lee Bouvier, fought viciously for her attention and affection. They eventually divorced, and Jacqueline's father spent much of his life trying?unsuccessfully?to keep Jacqueline away from his former wife after she married into the wealthy Auchincloss family. Davis's probing into family sorrows is gentle. This was a world where the children ran wild but dressed for dinner, where anything could be charged to Grampy Jack at the clubs and stores but where financial difficulties lurked beneath the idyllic surface. Unlike so many books about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, this one actually adds to our understanding and appreciation of the woman she became. Photos.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

This very evocative book by the late Mrs. Onassis's cousin is as much a nostalgic look at a vanished way of life as it is a memoir of Jacqueline Bouvier from her birth in 1929 until her marriage to Senator John F. Kennedy in September 1953. The author's access to family papers helped fill in the details of an enormously privileged yet often unhappy childhood, in which her parents' divorce left the young girl torn between the father she adored and an extremely controlling mother who was jealous of that relationship. Davis recounts gossip, but readers expecting nothing but dirt will be disappointed. This is instead a fond look at a beautiful and intelligent woman who was always something of an enigma, even to her own family; Davis does shed light on the events that helped make Jacqueline such a private person. This brief memoir includes beautiful photographs, some never before published. Recommended for libraries where there is an interest in Jacqueline Onassis and the Kennedys.?Elizabeth Mellett, Brookline P.L., Mass.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Nothing more to learn about Jackie O.? How about that her mother was a screamer, hit her daughter, and abandoned Jackie and her sister to a nanny while she prowled the New York social scene in search of a husband to replace Jackie's beloved father. Author Davis (Mafia Dynastry, 1993, etc.) was a first cousin on the Bouvier side to the late Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, but by his own admission, he was not an ``intimate.'' What Davis has going for him is family papers rescued and preserved by his mother and many childhood summers shared with Jackie at Lasata, the East Hampton retreat of their Bouvier grandparents. Davis's thesis is that the elegant surroundings and lifestyle at Lasata gave a head start to Jackie's highly developed esthetic and that the escalating warfare between her mother, the former Janet Lee, and her father, ``Black Jack'' Bouvier, led to her ``secretiveness.'' Caught in a tug-of-war between her parents for her affections, according to Davis, after her mother married the wealthy Hugh Auchincloss and her Grandfather Bouvier died leaving Lasata to be sold, Jackie began to pull away from her father. Eventually, on her wedding day, Bouvier was tragically abandoned, waiting in a Newport hotel room while Hugh Auchincloss gave his daughter away. Included are stories of Jackie as Deb of the Year, as Vassar student with football weekends at Yale and Princeton, and as inquiring photographer for the Washington Post. Here also is the text of Jackie's winning Vogue Prix de Paris entry, stories about how she charmed Joe Kennedy, and the fact that her number-one priority in a husband was that he be wealthy. Davis's reminiscences stop with her wedding. For ardent Jackie fans, plenty of photos, from babyhood to wedding day, some not seen before. Although the broad outlines of Jacqueline Bouvier's childhood are familiar, Davis's memories add details that will help readers better understand this most celebrated, most mysterious woman. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Critical Acclaim for Jacqueline Bouvier John Davis's intimate memoir of his beloved first cousin "Readers longing for a dignified and elegant approach to Jackie's early years will enjoy this biographical gem by John H. Davis." --Boston Herald "Goes a long way to highlight the formative influence of her privileged back-ground and her warm relationship with her father, the philandering Jack (Black Jack) Bouvier." --Los Angeles Times "Re-creates a colorful, fast-fading slice of American life as it flourished in the shadows of toll hedges and long lineages." --The Miami Herald "The most charming and reliable in the batch [of Jackie books] is Davis's memoir." --The Atlanta Journal and Constitution "Entertaining, a guilty pleasure." --The Associated Press "This tender memoir of Jackie's early years sheds much light on the future woman we all wanted to know but never could." --The Star-Ledger (Newark)

A fascinating biography of the former first lady written by a member of the Bouvier family. Focusing on the formative years before the White House, the book offers a vibrant portrait of Jackie's milieu and family life from her years as a child of privilege in Long Island to her 1952 Newport "Wedding of the Year," to Senator John F. Kennedy. Features insights based on letters from Jackie's father, John V."Black Jack" Bouvier, to Jackie into not just the father-daughter relationship, but into Jackie's personality, which would later captivate millions around the globe. Includes vintage photographs of Jackie and the Bouvier family and friends. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Critical Acclaim for Jacqueline Bouvier John Davis’s intimate memoir of his beloved first cousin "Readers longing for a dignified and elegant approach to Jackie’s early years will enjoy this biographical gem by John H. Davis." —Boston Herald "Goes a long way to highlight the formative influence of her privileged back-ground and her warm relationship with her father, the philandering Jack (Black Jack) Bouvier." —Los Angeles Times "Re-creates a colorful, fast-fading slice of American life as it flourished in the shadows of toll hedges and long lineages." —The Miami Herald "The most charming and reliable in the batch [of Jackie books] is Davis’s memoir." —The Atlanta Journal and Constitution "Entertaining, a guilty pleasure." —The Associated Press "This tender memoir of Jackie’s early years sheds much light on the future woman we all wanted to know but never could." —The Star-Ledger (Newark)

JOHN H. DAVIS is the author of the critically acclaimed The Bouviers, The Kennedys, and The Guggenheims. He lives in New York City.