My Life with Jacqueline Kennedy

New York: David McKay Company, Inc, 1969. Presumed first printing. Hardcover. Very good/good. x, 396, [2] pages. Illustrations. Some page and fore-edge soiling. DJ has some wear, soiling, tears and chips. The Author, Mary Gallagher, is uniquely situated to understand the real woman beneath the goddess figure that the world made of Jacqueline Kennedy, having been her personal secretary for eight years. She was privy to Mrs. Kennedy in her white house years as well as the years of her marriage before he took office. She was with her on that black day in Dallas. This is an intimate look at the real woman behind the legend. It is not a tell-all that betrays, but a peek at a woman who was the Queen of Camelot. Frances Spatz Ornstein Leighton (September 4, 1919 - April 6, 2007) was an American author best known for her ghostwriting of accounts of Washington, D.C., life. Leighton wrote or ghostwrote over 30 books, including My Thirty Years Backstairs at the White House (1961) and My Life with Jacqueline Kennedy (1969). She was born in Ohio and attended Ohio State University. Leighton soon moved to Washington, D.C., where she worked as a journalist for several publications, including The American Weekly. She ghostwrote her first memoir in 1957, of a chef for the President of the United States. After publishing several successful books, she became a very popular ghostwriter. Gallagher, 88, was personal secretary to Jacqueline Kennedy from 1957 to 1964, which includes the Kennedy presidency. Before that, she was Sen. John F. Kennedy's secretary and worked briefly for Jackie's mother. Gallagher took care of many of the first lady's affairs even before the White House, including reporting her expenses to her husband, a task she was issued thanks to a St. Patrick's Day toothache. The senator had been scheduled to march in a St. Patrick's Day parade in Boston, but when Gallagher arrived at the Georgetown home to organize Mrs. Kennedy's affairs, she found him at home with a puffy cheek and a toothache. He became interested in the expenses and requested that Gallagher keep him informed of his wife's excessive spending, a job that would take up much of her extra time in the next years. "Any time our paths would cross in the White House, I'd end up with homework because he'd ask me about her bills," she said. "I like to say, 'His toothache became my headache.' " Gallagher recalled the time just before the 1961 inauguration when she was with Jackie, who said to JFK's press secretary Pierre Salinger: "Oh, Pierre, Mary has to come to the White House." Gallagher responded, "Are you talking about this Mary?" Jackie reassured her, "Mary, it'll be just like Georgetown." (She sometimes stayed in the White House living quarters.) Derived from a Kirkus review: The press has already featured some-of the more startling revelations from the magazine appearance of part of this account by Jackie Kennedy's personal secretary--her plunging extravagances which led to little economies such as refilling and recirculating the abandoned highball glass at a party. Be that as it may, there will be many readers for this close-up which although never overtly malicious does reveal Jackie in the pace from day to day. Throughout the running account of over three years Jackie is seen, generally aloof, serene, unruffled and devoting herself to the "projects of her own choice". Jackie seems to have been pretty independent of people in general; not too considerate to the mothers; and if the children did anything to annoy her, they were quickly removed. None of this of course does much to improve the image she spent some time and considerable shrewdness in maintaining--not to mention the money which led to recurrent difficulties with John F. who has lost none of his lustre in this version of Versailles at Camelot. A titillating tale.