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A new book on the early life of Jackie Bouvier Kennedy. Just when you think you have read her whole story, this book gives insight into another side of the First Lady who led us all with strength and stoic calm during the aftermath of her husband, President John F. Kennedy’s tragic assassination. No one will ever forget her great dignity as she walked down Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House following her husband's casket to the Cathedral of St. Mathew for his funeral service with world leaders behind her.
This book deals with the early life of Jacquline Kennedy. As a single 23-year-old woman in 1952, Jackie wanted to be a writer. She had a job with the Washington-Times- Herald and wrote a column titled “Inquiring Camera Girl” (The source of the book's title). She would interview people on the street and ask them questions about current events.
The author opens the first page with these comments. “As the June 1949 wedding season approached, it seemed like every one of her fellow Social Register Debutantes wanted a husband. All Jacqueline Bouvier wanted was a terrific camera.” She wanted to write and saw the camera as a stepping stone for a job in a newspaper.
Jackie was an intellectual who managed to attend and leave three different colleges; Vassar, the Sorbonne, and George Washington University taking with her the best each could offer. She was an independent soul and rebelled against rules and rigid expectations.
Her mother, Janet Bouvier Auchincloss, was a sensitive, temperamental, controlling perfectionist with strong ideas about what her daughter should do. She felt the most crucial goal for her daughter was to get married and volunteer as a socialite in the community. Janet felt that working in a job was socially beneath Jackie’s position in life.
Jackie felt differently. She rebelled against that concept which was the common goal during that period for women attending colleges. Jackie had many beaus but wanted an independent lifestyle and a job writing. She won first prize for an essay she sent into a competition held by Vogue Magazine, and that gave her inspiration to search for a job. She talked her way into writing a column about interviewing people on the street and taking photos of them at the Washington Times-Herald.
The editor hired her, thinking her articles would be amusing and a diversion from heavy news. However, her column became very popular, and she interviewed many people off the street to get the average opinion on topics concerning America, and later she interviewed important people like Vice President Nixon and Senator John F. Kennedy.
The book spans her childhood growing up in a well-to-do but unhappy family. Her mother was too strict and critical, and her father played around outside the marriage. A divorce ensued, and she and her sister Lee favored their father. So she would leave Vassar every weekend to spend time with her dad in New York, and they would have fun going to museums, out to lunch, movies, and nightclubs. (She was not allowed to leave Vassar on weekends but did anyway, and that ended her time at Vassar.)
Her mother sent her to Europe for three months, and she enrolled in the Sorbonne but always wanted to write. Coming home, she took a course in journalism at George Washington University and walked into the Washington Times- Herald and talked her way into her job as a reporter and photographer. Jackie's writing became more important than her photography, and the paper decided to send out press photographers to cover her articles.
At first, I thought Jackie was just playing at being a writer, but then I realized her serious dedication when the author stated that Jackie worked six days a week in the heat of the summer. Now, summers in Washington are very hot! Plus, it was 1952, and there was no air conditioning in the press building. I cannot imagine writing in the heat in Washington, D.C., without air-conditioning! This fact convinced me she was fiercely ambitious about being a writer.
Her growing relationship with John F..Kennedy was heartwarming and very interesting!!! The description of her mother organizing wedding plans (when the time came about), as well as getting along with Ambassador Joe Kennedy, who decided to manage plans for the wedding himself, was awesome.
Apparently, “mummy” (as Jackie called her mother) had met her match in Joe Kennedy, in competing for control of wedding plans.) However, all remained friendly! The wedding took place, and Joe Kennedy had his way. This book shows another side of Jackie Kennedy that the public is not fully aware of, and I highly recommend reading it.
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