Jacqueline Bouvier - John H Davis

As beloved First Lady, tireless patron of the arts, dedicated career woman, and devoted mother, she lived at the center of the worlds stage. Yet, until recently, her early years, from childhood to young adulthood
the formative years that shaped her character
remained wrapped in private memories. In Jacqueline Bouvier, family historian and bestselling author John H. Davis opens the window on his memories of his celebrated first cousin in her youth.

Extraordinarily intimate and touching, Jacqueline Bouvier is a tale of two childhoods. Daviss mother and Jackies father were sister and brother, and John Davis and Jacqueline, born just weeks apart, spent their summers together on their grandfathers East Hampton estate and frequently met at family holiday gatherings. Secure in the heart of privilege, they grew up in the gilded townhouses and grand ballrooms of New York City, the equestrian circles of Long Island, and the mansion society of Newport.

Jackies mother, Janet Lee, a highstrung and strongwilled young woman, had been determined to marry into Society. She did, after meeting the dashing playboy stockbroker John "Black Jack" Bouvier, whose family could trace its American roots back more than a century. Jacquelines Grandfather Bouvier was a gentleman of the old school who kept a household where strict rules of dress and decorum were enforced. He instilled in his grandchildren a deep sense of aristocratic lineage, a characteristic that would influence Jackies highly developed aesthetic sense and extraordinary strength of character. Ironically, Jackies maternal grandfather, James T. Lee, was a selfmade millionaire whose rise from rags to riches oddly paralleled that of her future fatherinlaw, Joseph P. Kennedy.

Jacqueline Lee Bouvier was born on July 28, 1929. Her idyllic early childhood
she became a passionate equestrienne, winning her first blue ribbon at the age of five
was shattered by her parents bitter divorce when she was only seven years old. The ensuing emotional tugofwar for her loyalty and devotion, fueled by her own conflicting feelings for her overly critical mother and her overly indulgent father, would haunt Jackie even on the day of her wedding to John Kennedy in 1953. From her fathers unpublished letters to her come new insights into their fateful relationship.

After attending Vassar, the Sorbonne, and Georgetown, Jackie worked as an inquiring photographer for a newspaper in Washington, D.C., and it was here that the vibrant, ambitious young woman encountered the young congressman from Massachusetts. Their courtship would culminate in what Life magazine dubbed "The Wedding of the Year." At that moment, the intensely private young woman began a new life as one of the most famous public figures of the century.

"His memories of the familys summer gatherings in East Hampton are tinged with moving nostalgia. . . . His personal reminiscences of Jackies White House years are irresistible."
The New York Times on The Bouviers

"Davis does a magnificent job of narrating this family chronicle."
Los Angeles Times on The Bouviers

"A consistently fascinating saga."
Time magazine on The Guggenheims

"Every American should read this book."
Liz Smith, New York Daily News on The Kennedys

Jacqueline Bouvier recreates the people, places, and events that shaped her young life. Lavishly illustrated with vintage family photographs
some never before published
it is a revealing, rewarding story, told with warmth, honesty, and great affection.