Jackie as Editor, Greg Lawrence
Jackie as Editor, Greg Lawrence
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Jackie as Editor
The Literary Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Author: Greg Lawrence

Narrator: Bernadette Dunne

Unabridged: 13 hr 29 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/04/2011

Synopsis

This is an absorbing chronicle of a much overlooked chapter in Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’ life—her nineteen-year editorial career.History remembers Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis as the consummate first lady, the nation’s tragic widow, the tycoon’s wife, and, of course, the quintessential embodiment of elegance. Her biographers, however, skip over an equally important stage in her life: her nearly twenty-year-long career as a book editor. Jackie as Editor, written by one of the authors Jackie edited, is the first book to focus exclusively on this remarkable woman’s editorial career.At the age of forty-six, one of the most famous women in the world went to work for the first time in twenty-two years. Greg Lawrence, who had three of his books edited by Jackie, draws from interviews with more than 120 of her former collaborators and acquaintances in the publishing world to examine one of the twentieth century’s most enduring subjects of fascination through a new angle: her previously untouted skill in the career she chose. Over the last third of her life, Jackie would master a new industry, weather a very public professional scandal, and shepherd over a hundred books through the increasingly corporate halls of Viking and Doubleday. Away from the public eye, Jackie quietly defined life on her own terms. Jackie as Editor gives intimate new insights into the life of a complex and enigmatic woman who found fulfillment through her creative career during book publishing’s legendary golden age.

About Greg Lawrence

Greg Lawrence is the author or coauthor of seven previous books, including Colored Lights, Dance with Demons, Time Steps, The Shape of Love, The Little Ballerina and Her Dancing Horse, and the New York Times bestselling Dancing on My Grave— the last three edited by Jackie Onassis.

About Bernadette Dunne

Bernadette Dunne is the winner of numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards and has twice been nominated for the prestigious Audie Award. She studied at the Royal National Theatre in London and the Studio Theater in Washington, DC, and has appeared at the Kennedy Center and off Broadway.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Joanna on August 04, 2011

When Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis died, her son announced that she passed away "surrounded by her friends and her family and her books." If that were not testament enough to how much this woman loved reading, there is also the fact that she had no monetary need to work, but chose to seek employment in......more

Goodreads review by Valerie on August 13, 2017

Not only an excellent insight into Jackie's talents as an editor, but also indicates her depth of character in so many ways. However, the book probably would have benefitted from her decisive editing skills.......more

Goodreads review by Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog on December 20, 2018

In giving Greg Lawrence’s Jackie as Editor 3 stars I wish to emphasize that I did not dislike the book. I may be a victim of myown anticipation but I feel that author Lawrence left me with several problems. He is not a bad writer, just not a great one. He was or considered himself a friend of Mrs. O......more

Goodreads review by Sara on January 22, 2012

Parts of Lawrence's book are interesting. Unfortunately, Lawrence is constrained in his storytelling by a dogged adherence to a linear timeline: "First, Jackie worked with this author on this book and here is an anecdote about her from that author. Here is a second author," and so on. Through EVERY......more

Goodreads review by Catherine on November 28, 2018

I'm one of those annoying and cliched old women who loved Jacqueline Kennedy, although I'm embarrassed to admit it. And so I loved this book, which is interesting without being (very) vulgar. I'm glad I read it. Every 50 pages or so, I'd have to add something to the old Amazon wish list, but sadly,......more

Quotes

“Lawrence’s perceptive, impressively researched book…present[s] a woman with ‘a grand spirit of adventure and...a sense of irony about life that served as a kind of armor’ for this courageous, gifted woman.” Publishers Weekly

“Jackie as Editor is a fascinating insider account of her fulfilling final years as a book editor in publishing. A must for Jackie fans.” Sarah Bradford, New York Times bestselling author

“For Jackie Kennedy Onassis, the role of editor was just another version of her role as America’s muse. She created the Camelot story in the JFK histories, and years later she wrought the same magic upon the books she edited. I kept wondering as I read Greg Lawrence’s book what Mrs. O would have made of this delicious biography. This is a great story about a woman who had everything—men, money, power—and all she wanted was more to read. I bet she would have loved Jackie as Editor. Every book lover and fan of Jackie will be caught in its magic.” Harriet Rubin, author of The Princessa: Machiavelli for Women 

“Lawrence’s work gives audiences an in-depth view of the authors and books personally championed by Onassis, whose literary tastes were impeccable. Bernadette Dunne’s sterling narration brings the work to life.” Library Journal (starred review)

“One of Jacqueline Onassis’ authors dishes kindly on her impressive editorial record…Chatty without being vulgar, a deeply admiring portrait of a lady the world is just now getting to know.” Kirkus Reviews

“Narrator Bernadette Dunne so inhabits these voices, especially the signature breathy whisper of Jackie herself, that one forgets the authorial intermediary…This title—interesting, revealing, full of indelible Jackie ‘moments’—tells more about her glamorous and complicated life than many standard biographies.” AudioFile

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