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Two ALSs from Jacqueline Kennedy, both signed “Jackie,” sent to her famous first cousin, Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale, dated May 28, 1965, and April 16, 1969, consisting of pleasantries and Jackie’s thoughts on the publication of a new book about the Bouvier family, written by her cousin John H. Davis. The earlier handwritten letter, one black-bordered page, 6.25 x 9.25, Kennedy coat of arms letterhead, in full: “Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness in sending the children the prayer books and me the cologne. They took the books with them to England. They are their greatest treasures—next only to the religious pictures you sent me once—that belonged to Daddy & you—which each one has by his bedside. I send you all my love and I think of you so often.”
The second letter, five pages, 5.25 x 7.75, personal 1040 Fifth Avenue letterhead, in full: “I was so touched by your letter. You and Aunt Edie have always been so special to me—my favorites ever since I was a little girl—and even though we didn't see each other much in the last years—I always felt so close to you—and you always kept in touch—in the happy times and the sad ones. Thank you for all your wishes about Ari—you must meet him some day. He is so wise and kind—and I think he is so much like the Bouviers, I love a loner with a touch of sadness.
You mustn’t worry about Jack Davis’ book. At first I was so angry—I read the excerpts of it that he sold to magazines, then I read the book. And what comes out if it is just the opposite of the impression he was trying to create.
The sensitive Bouviers—Aunt Edie, Daddy, Uncle Bud—you—are the ones who touch the heart. And the prissy ones—the twins—who obviously dictated all the parts about their generation to him—they come out as such petty, spoiled, life-diminishing people—attaching importance to all the wrong things in life—vain and selfish—putting ceremony & position and status above all the deep things in life—and still mooning over the days when they were the lovely red headed twins.
And that’s what people who read it will think. I was so dumbfounded by the description of your mother’s wedding—then I was amused—as they were so stupid to dictate that to dumb old Jack Davis—Cordons of screaming admirers fainting over the little twins. You wouldn’t have guessed there was a bride at the wedding.
You know what people will always think of Jack Davis as now? As a boy who did nothing who traded on President Kennedy’s life & death to peddle a book about his relatives—& was disloyal to his family. This is what was written about him in Europe—& that is what I get lots of mail about. I’m glad he wrote the book now—because there is a poetry about the wonderful Bouviers in it that is beautiful—& when all the flap has died down—that is what will endure. Please give so much love to Aunt Edie. If you ever come to NY let me know—& I hope I come back to Easthampton sometime. You two are the only people I care about there.” In overall fine condition. Both letters are accompanied by their original mailing envelopes hand-addressed by Jackie, who incorporates her surname, “Onassis,” in the return address on the reverse of the later envelope. The earlier envelope bears her preprinted franking signature.
The longer letter is related to the recent publication of the biographical book The Bouviers: Portrait of an American Family, which was written by Jackie’s first cousin, John ‘Jack’ Davis, who authored several books on the Italian Mafia and notable American families like the Guggenheims and the Kennedys. Evident is Jackie and Edie’s disappointment with their cousin’s new book, which, given the long and fascinating history of the Bouvier clan, was rife with private family anecdotes. Edie and her mother, Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale, were not greatly affected by the exposé, as they were later famously the subjects of the acclaimed 1975 film Grey Gardens, widely considered to be one of the greatest documentary films of all time.
