Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: The Untold Story: The Untold Story

The instant New York Times and USA Today bestseller! The untold story of how one woman's life was changed forever in a matter of seconds by a horrific trauma. Barbara Leaming's extraordinary and deeply sensitive biography is the first book to document Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' brutal, lonely and valiant thirty-one year struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that followed JFK's assassination. Here is the woman as she has never been seen before. In heartrending detail, we witness a struggle that unfolded at times before our own eyes, but which we failed to understand. Leaming's biography also makes clear the pattern of Jackie's life as a whole. We see how a spirited young woman's rejection of a predictable life led her to John F. Kennedy and the White House, how she sought to reconcile the conflicts of her marriage and the role she was to play, and how the trauma of her husband's murder which left her soaked in his blood and brains led her to seek a very different kind of life from the one she'd previously sought. A life story that has been scrutinized countless times, seen here for the first time as the serious and important story that it is. A story for our times at a moment when we as a nation need more than ever to understand the impact of trauma. At a cocktail party in Newport, Rhode Island, in the waning summer of 1945 Everything had changed in the weeks since Jackie had had her interview with Frank Waldrop "How perfect it is being married," Jackie exulted at the close of her honeymoon stay in Acapulco For the rest of his life, Elmer Bartels would puzzle over Jackie Kennedy's behavior when he encountered her again in New York in October 1954 There are rumors going around in Washington about the senator and his wife, that they're not getting along, and that they've been separated Later, Jackie would tell the story of her marriage to Jack Kennedy in terms of his evolving sense of her political viability Jackie would relive the sliver of time between the first gunshot, which had missed the car, and the second, which hit both the president and Texas governor John Connally I just wanted you to know you were loved by so many and so much "I think we gotta give a little thought to our vice president," said Lyndon Johnson "I just heard that you were probably going to go to the memorial to the president," LBJ told Jackie on the phone The arrangements for Jackie's thirty-seventh birthday celebration, to be held belatedly at the Mellon's Osterville, Massachusetts, estate, on August 5, 1966, began in a haze of secrecy On December 20, 1966 the North American newspaper alliance sent out over the newswire an article "For Immediate Release," accompanied by a note to the editors of 90 papers: "This may be the first article in newspapers that is openly critical of Jacqueline Kennedy's posture in America" On Sunday, February 18, 1968, the sound of revolver shots automatically tripped off the security system in Jackie's brain On the rainy evening of October 20, 1968, Jackie began the latest iteration of what she persisted in calling "my new life" Even before Aristotle Onassis died, David Harlech had judged that Jackie, aged 45, seemed somehow to have, in his phrase, "turned a corner" By the time of the book party for Louis Auchincloss's new nonfiction work, Maverick in Mauve, more than 30 years had passed since the champagne-stoked evening when Auchincloss, then aged thirty-four, and Jackie Bouvier, aged twenty-two, had both been in crisis over how they intended to spend the rest of their lives This book tells the untold story of how one woman's life was changed forever in a matter of seconds by a horrific trauma. For almost six decades, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis has fascinated people worldwide. She has been the subject of numerous books and thousands of articles, and her life has been chronicled in millions of words. And yet there has always remained something mysterious, something private about this very public woman. With extraordinary skill and great sensitivity, Barbara Leaming's biography explores the seemingly magical world of Jackie's youth, her fairy-tale marriage to a wealthy and handsome Senator and Presidential candidate, and her astonishing transformation into a deft political wife and unique First Lady. This spirited young woman's rejection of the idea of a "safe marriage" as the wife of some socially prominent but utterly predictable man led her to JFK and, in time, international fame. But the trauma of her husband's murder, which left her literally soaked in blood and brains, would damage her far more than has been known. Until now. Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: The Untold Story is the first book to document Jackie's brutal, lonely, and valiant thirty-one-year struggle with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Here is the woman as she has never been seen before. In heartrending detail, Leaming writes of a struggle that unfolded at times before our own eyes, but which we failed to understand. While the life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis has been examined and scrutinized countless times, it is only now that we can truly understand the woman behind the facade, the untold story of this iconic woman. - Jacket flap. A book that explores the seemingly magical world of Jackie Onassis' youth, her fairy-tale marriage to a wealthy and handsome senator and presidential candidate and her astonishing transformation into a deft political wife and unique first lady also explores what the author asserts was Jackie's 31-year struggle with PTSD after the assassination of her husband, John F. Kennedy Explores the seemingly magical world of Jackie Onassis' youth, her fairy-tale marriage to a wealthy and handsome senator and presidential candidate and her astonishing transformation into a deft political wife and unique first lady, as well as her possible 31-year struggle with PTSD after the assassination of her husband, John F. Kennedy.