works for everyone. >> we would like to hear from you. tweet us your feedback. twitter.com/booktv. >> coming up on booktv william coo and recalls the publishing career of jacqueline kennedy onassis who worked as an editor for doubleday and flaking. she never wrote a memoir of her own but her project selections as an editor mirrored her own personal interests. from among these were a history of thomas jefferson and his relationship with sally headings. a book on the assassination of john lennon and an effort to convince michael jackson to write a memoir. ..

and it's true of jacqueline kennedy onassis. and think she may not have been willing to tell you herself about the 100 books she brought into print when she was an editor first of viking and then at doubleday for the last 20 years of her life, from 1975 to

1994. if anything, editors books are more indicative of her personality because they include what she has selected, invested time and. so what i'd like to do is tell you a story of those 100 books in a little bit about how they connect to her life in who she was. the first -- there are two things i'd like to say about jackie's personality, which i think you may not know about. and the first is that she was the reader. among her earliest memories was being sent out to her mother's headroom to take a nap when she was a child and getting out of the bag, taking down one of her mother's books from the bookshelf and going over to the window seat or an hour and reading the book instead of taking them out. and she told that story in a kind of essay she wrote for a

competition to go into an internship at vote. and i think that is her admitting an important memory about her childhood. that identity is the reader continued all her life. her white house secretary remembered that people usually usually.come up with jackie doing quite a shootout jet setting with her international friends. i wasn't usually the case. what was usually the case issues by herself in a rare reading the book. that was the prime memory her white house secretary had with her. aaron sheckler did several sketches of her for her official white house portrait and this was one of those sketches. it was the one she told him she liked the best. it wasn't the one he eventually developed into the porcher, but it was the one where she said that's me for reading the book.

she was also the writer. when her children were away at school and her second hunt and died in 1975, she began trying out ideas for different careers. one of the first things was writing an anonymous piece for "the new yorker." she wrote a talk at the top of the new institute of contemporary photography in new york city, which has been on fifth avenue. and indeed, one of the book she had in her room, in her bedroom when she died on fifth avenue in 1894 was a book commemorating an essay prize she had one as a young woman at miss porter's school in connecticut. so being a writer was also important to her identity. after new yorker piece was published, or former white house social secretary, alicia

baldridge suggested that jackie keep in touch with an old, there's, tom ginsberg whose family firm with the viking press, at this stage it was a family firm that belonged to ginsberg's. she met with tom ginsberg. he thought it would be great to have her on board. he thought she knows everyone, she has the most -- she has the best sort of address book in new york. we can certainly get some good book projects out of her nlb could pr for the company as well. so he was happy take her on in 1975. their relationship though it didn't go well because in 1977, the vikings press said shall we tell the president and this novel imagined the presidency of ted kennedy, jackie's

brother-in-law and imagine 10 kennedy being fascinated in the novel. now, there are some questions about how much jackie knew about this and it can, but when the book was being published, "the new york times" reviewer said at the last line of his book review, anyone who is associated with this novel should be ashamed of herself, which was a little bit unfair because she hadn't had that much to do with the novel if anything. but under pressure from the kennedy family, she resigned her position that viking. she was able to join doubleday a few months later, early in 1978 and there she remained for 16 years until the day she died. her career there was much happier. and if we begin now to shift from the beginning of her career in publishing to a consideration

of the books themselves, we see that they fall into a number of groups that sort of classified according to themes in her life. i didn't want to just sort of cover the book chronologically. they seem to me they felt a certain kind of thematic areas in which it can also connect with her life and that was more revealing about her personality. i'd like to take you through those groups of books rather than through a strictly chronological account of her career. the first of those teams is marriage. well, everyone i think knows about jackie was the wife of husbands who were not entirely faithful to her. so it's interesting to find her taking diana breland, editor of

vogue museum of art to do a book which featured two women, very prominently whose names are both associated with liaisons with their former hud then, maryland monroe and maria callas with aristotle onassis. in backing diana to get this book, which was called the lure that came out in 1980, jackie seemed to be able to rise above her own history with these women and to join breland in saying that both of these women had indelible allure, indelible attraction and indelible appeal. and it seems to me one of the things that is -- which attracted me to jackie, which attracted me to her is that she separated her job as an editor from whatever personal relationship she may have had. she also encouraged barbara to write the slave mistress of the

president of thomas jefferson. she commissioned elizabeth croke to write reagan's bride, a novel about a woman who had a marriage that lasted only a few weeks to sam houston, which broke up probably because of his infidelity and he spent the rest of her time in seclusion trying to protect her privacy. this book came to jackie, reagan's bride came to jackie and they specifically recall recommending the book to jackie because it reminded them of her, especially the truth and consistency on her privacy. jacqui acquired the book and published it. jackie also accept that the novel of the last living member of the renaissance, doherty was, a book called the wedding about the troubled marriages and several generations of african-americans to summer on martha's vineyard.

jackie's experience may not have been identical to these carried yours, but she endorsed all of these books and they recommend marriage on the whole as complex, problematic and neither romantic nor ideal. a second group of jackie's books i've group to run the kind of category of motherhood, clearly a crucial phase in her own life. this image she commissioned also from aaron sheckler did one of her reading and had her son john reading and her daughter caroline writing or perhaps working in the sketchbook. it's a key indication of what she cared about and this comes out in the book she commissioned. she did for books for children with carly simon and two more books for children but the young couple -- a pair of young women, jodie lynn scott and holland by who she met from the editor of

rolling dome. she also commissioned peter's thesis, if the her children on product called three golden keys, which he later thought better commissioning that vote has laid the foundation for his being awarded for the macarthur foundation genius grant. her authors specifically thought of her as a kind of maternal figure. louis hawken cloth said that jackie, an editor becomes kind of your mother. and elizabeth croke who wrote reagan's bride recalled that jackie was extremely motherly in the way she treated croke she sometimes felt that jackie was looking after her as a mother hen would. many of her younger colleagues remember the same thing. scott moyers, who is now a high-powered literary agent in

new york, that he was and a very junior assistant to jackie remembered that when he got sick one winter, she went out to the drugstore and brought him back theraflu. she reproach him for going outside with his hair wet and then she sponsored him when he ran a marathon to raise money for leukemia, from which his mother had died. so not only did her children's books arise from her and experience as a mother, but her colleagues and authors all remember a maternal strain in her editorial work with her. betty for dan.jackie was a closet feminist. and although that may sound like intentionally provocative remark, actually quite a few of jackie's books back up that

contention. they are on women's history and by the way, women's history far ahead of its time in some ways, women's history is now a very established part of the academic curriculum in american universities, but in the 1970s which you begin to do this, it was not. she was ahead of her time at this. so she did books on women's history, but she also did several fictional narratives of independent women fighting against the odds in a man's world and i'd like to tell you about a few of those. this is the cover of remember the ladies, which company and a year of the bicentennial, 1976 and it was one of her first works of viking and one of the worst of her works on women's history. another book that she acquired was bostonian nancy is a wrote this book, which was a novel on working women in the mills of lowell, massachusetts with

historical novel covering a good deal of 19th century history,, but with women workers and that book was called called the dark display. another book to an accompanying exhibition at the metropolitan museum in new york was called the 18th century woman, including some of the female figures from history that jackie admired most, including duchess of devonshire, the subject of the very popular biography 10 years ago and abigail adams, who was the first lady jackie was on record as having to admire most. jackie also commissioned louis to write on how the powerful 18th woman were ahead of their time during the 18th 18th century and asserting their quality demand. and that book came out and falls down. the contention was that a great deal and a small group of women had a great deal of legal and

social and educationally century which was later lost and not regained until modern times. she also published the diary of an independent debutante at the end of the 19th century called maverick and mode. she asked eugene kennedy, who is no relation to her first husband's family to expand and articles he had written for "the new york times" on the first female mayor of chicago, jane byrne and that became a novel called queen bee. and not all of these are sort of uncritical accounts of women in power. queen bee in many ways is about a figure who is sort of power-hungry and power mad and when the book was published, jackie choked with eugene kennedy, you might have to chicago now, eugene.

she had some surprising sources for both your she found an article in "people" magazine -- is not great? jackie reading people magazine, about how an enterprising african american woman who was trying to put together a reunion of the descendents of both the masters and the slaves of the north carolina plantation called somerset. that article turn into one of jackie's books called somerset homecoming, which "the new york times" reviewer said was less about how is the mystery of the very remarkable woman who had been inspired by alex haley's roots to try and uncover some of her own ancestors. jackie gave very, very few interviews to the press in her post-white house days. you can count them on one hand, but one of them was the magazine in connection with promoting the

book called called the darkness light. and in this interview, jackie says explicitly something about women's division in the 1970s and 80s and mrs. jackie speaking. what has been sad for many women if my generation is that a word supposed to work if they had families. there they were with the highest education. and what was i supposed to do when children were grown? watch raindrops coming down the window pane? leave their fine minds under exercised? of course women should work if they want to. you have to do something you enjoy. that's one definition of happiness. it applies to women as well to men. we can't all reach it, but we can try to reach it to some degree. so that was jackie in ms. magazine. well, the next group of books is on photography and it's

interesting -- it was interesting to me fine i'll probably the most photographed woman in the world also specializing in books on photography. she did a number of books and a large format and here they are together at the institute of contemporary photography in new york on which jackie served on their board, so photography was an interest of hers in the museum world is slow. and jackie had organized a special exhibition to go along with the publication in 1980 in this photo was snapped at that exhibition in 1980. vreeland introduced her to deborah turbo and they did a book of weird stage fashion photographs, including monkeys and death leaves and scantily clad models on the back stairs of their site called unseen

versailles. louis often clark wrote the introduction to the book and he remembered that i had of the research division, calling this book is all going to be about soft pornography. she said here is her own number. give her a call. and that was the end of that trouble. i like this photograph because they'd look like that too ethereal beauties are to determine women who want to bring their book out. jackie also contributed to the production of this book in the southern photographer, william eggleston, a major artist and art photography, but also a bizarre figure who was a gun enthusiast. he is known about photography aficionados for being the first to bring color to art

photography. but interestingly in this book, edelstein included pictures of the building in dallas in which lee harvey oswald had stayed to take aim at jfk. jackie didn't flinch. she allowed the photograph to go ahead and it would have just as echols didn't have planned it. that's eggleston on the last and the photo that jackie let go ahead, which eggleston photo of the schoolbook depository. questions of art were higher for her than questions of her own biography or her own trauma. norway she put off by a bizarre personalities one of her colleagues remembered eccleston and jackie's office said doubleday, standing on top of her desk and demonstrating oppression to set. and jackie was sitting in her desk chair with her arms

crossed, completely unfazed by this. and so i kind of liked that picture of her dealing with one of her authors. she did another book of photography with the french photojournalist, mark riboud which was taken on the chinese mountain, which was the hiking destination of recently married couples -- young married couples. she and riboud happened to be together in the late 1980s. she had gone for the opening of the new building and he was there because he had been commissioned to photograph the opening of a new university for "time" magazine. he asked her, jackie, you're going to be at the same time as me. why not come help me out with this photo shoot? and so she did. and the amazing thing was that the chinese didn't recognize her. back in those days, they didn't have the same kind of access to the mass media. to her, she was another western

woman on the street. they do not take a picture, put her peer they didn't come up to date are? and so, she felt enormously free. one of the things that she and riboud did together was went into a small walking photography studio come usually used by recently married couples and they had this picture last night of themselves taken. and it was taken in black-and-white and the chinese kind of hand colored it and send it to riboud. and riboud saw -- came back and forth between new york and paris quite a lot and he was invited to a dinner party at jackie's house at 10, 45th avenue and one evening he sat in front of the gas, jackie, i had a picture of your wedding with me. voilà. one of her last books in 1994 was on the work of tony

frissell, a friend and contemporary at jackie's mother, janet. in the jacket copy for this book, in which she would have had some direct involvement is the way of which a woman's work might also be a commentary on a life. frissell says the jacket copy for this book stretch the boundaries of the privilege road for which she was born and became one of the most innovative and renowned photographers of her time. her photographs were her autobiography. her pictures for her life. and i'd say the same can be said of jackie's books. she stretched the boundaries in which she was born. this is a photo of a model that frissell had dropped into a dolphin tank and marine world in the 1940s. and jackie chose it for the cover of the book.

i think we think of her as somebody who was one definition of sartorial elegance, but i think her selection of this photo for the cover of the book shows she had a real and thanks for photographic evidence as well. such a perfect picture. jackie was deeply involved in the selection of these photos for the frissell. tony frissell's daughter was involved as well. but because tony frissell was dead and no longer around, jackie was involved in george plimpton who wrote the foreword to jackie's selection for the selection all these people made covered a wide range of subjects. this is a frissell photo of the vanderbilts having tea in florida. and i love this picture. they've called the oriental rugs and everything out into the corridor so they can have it

outdoors, you know, kind of a breezeway. and a wonderful woman on the far right-hand side is consuelo vanderbilts who became duchess of marlborough by one of her marriages and then married again and became consuelo ball fan. the consuelo wasn't just interested as jackie wasn't either. she went to europe during the second world war and photographed bomb damage, displaced refugees in the tuskegee airmen, an all-black group of fighter pilots and what was then still a segregated american army. when she was working on the book of tony frissell photograph, jackie went to washington d.c. with a group of doubleday staffers to make one of the preliminary selections of photos that would be in the book. and then the library of congress

curator everly brandon was jackie in the center and stafford, tony frissell's daughter in the right. they brought with them some cameras to make records of the images they wanted to select and someone snapped this photo of jackie at work on the boxes of photographs. bruce tracy, one of jackie's assistants says when he saw this photograph, if she heard that snap of that pocket camera, she wouldn't have been happy. but in a way, i'm happy to picture is there because it shows she was a working editor. she traveled when necessary in behalf of her books and wrote in the manuscript and sent letters to authors saying this isn't good enough. you need to do another draft. and in the case of the frissell book as she manhandled the boxes when they were at the library of

congress or a woman handle them. while they were out work in the library of congress, everybody was conscious of the fact that tony frissell had photographed jackie's wedding to jfk in 1953. but they were all shy about asking her to go through those photos because they knew there would be photos of her in a box. they finally took her aside and said jacky, these are the pictures of your wedding. and she said right away, yes, we've got to have one from that. let's open it up and see what we have. she chose one right away, almost assertive get it over with. and this is the one she chose. let's take that when she said. sydney's frissell stafford said it wasn't the best one of those flattering of her. this isn't a bad photo of jackie by any means, but sidney stafford said she was without vanity on this. she wanted to get the selection out of the way and she

acknowledged that a picture of her probably ought to be in the book and that was the one they chose. ordinarily she didn't like her fame being referred to. not by her author is, not by her colleagues, not by anybody at doubleday. she didn't like towards the end of her career, her name appearing on her books. but when it came to a photographer whose work she admired, she was ready for her own image to be reproduced in the book. in some cases is a question of art for her. in some cases she put what she regarded as art before questions of her own privacy. now, jackie also did a significant number of books on ballet, including memoirs by martha graham and judith jamison and several books by the prima ballerina, gelsey kirkland as well as a collection of the

collection of the george balanchine. and in addition of alexander pushkin tales with an introduction by rudolf garay has been that if caroline kennedy on the last in the center talking to jackie. the ballet critics told me shortly before he died that he didn't believe for a second day in a ray wrote the piece for jackie. he was a dancer and he couldn't string a sentence together. i don't believe he wrote that. he did agree to his name on the cover and did remember that they both wanted to help promote one another's careers. and i went for jackie as well. one of the few interview she did with "the new york times" in her post-white house -- post-white house years was for a magazine article, which took up the critics accusations that he was dancing to leak into his 1940s. he was too old. he should get off the stage.

and jackie sadat for him and gave an interview for the article saying he's magnificent and he should dance until he drops. he died very young of age in the end and she was one of his supporters on the way to the end. >> it is surprising how subversive and wicked some of her dance books can be. this is a very funny photographs from martha graham's memoir called blood memory, which jackie would almost certainly have select it and help put together herself because graham died in between finishing the text and the book coming out. so jackie would have been involved in select in the air for that. in one of the things which appeared in graham's memoir is a picture of her from the 1930s in a dance called every soul is a circus.

and the caption to this reads, just before i tapped eric with the flower and every soul is a circus, i thought where did you come from? ipe love. and she seems to be saying it to eric spot on. but that is jackie's selection. okay, the woman who was called america's queen by the tabloid and this is another thing that surprised me, also did a significant number of books on the royal courts bureau. here she is on an official visit to britain in the early 1960s. in her editorial career, she brought out a whole series of books on oversight and the napoleonic court succeeded it, including biographies of fluid 14, the 15th and letters of marie antoinette. she told her dressmaker in the

1960s when she was in the white house, douglas t. kept quiet about her dress budget, she would rapidly turning to the marie antoinette of the 1960s herself. so there was some degree of personal identification between jackie and court figures, especially for file queens. she told deborah turbo bill when they were working on and it seemed for side that she particularly identified with one royal mistress, madam pompadour was the most famous 18th century patron of the arts. and it seems pretty likely that jackie may have had pompadour is one of the patterns for her own white house patronage of the arts in the 19th 60s. so some sense that she might've tried to do in the 1960s which pompadour did under the weight of 16. later her editorial career, jackie personally select the this century portrait of madam

pompadour with a book in her hands as a symbol of her learning for princess grace's book with jackie, which was called methyl for fathers. and for anyone who is interested in this comment certainly not the most valuable book in the collection. it has in its collection and the rare books room a copy of the book signed by princess green. if you're nice to see the curator, he may show it to you. jackie went to russia in the 1970s with the metropolitan museum of art than direct your time hoping to ask the russians to be as generous as possible in their loads of clothing for an exhibition at the costume institute. while she was there, she tried on a swamp opera cape worn by

this arena of russia, alexander, consort of nicholas the second and this was something which was -- which hoving brought back in his holiday snaps of her. she also commissioned russian playwrights edvard redizinsky to write about the assassination of tsar nicholas ii come which came out in 1992 as the last hour. it was the bestseller in here she is with her did she at the launch party and the russian tea room in new york. did she identify with the subject of this book? it's hard to say. brzezinski was convinced that she definitely decided to take his book when he told her was not so much about the murder of the russian imperial family, but about their forgiveness for their executioners and cap yours. the translator of the book said no, jackie to the book is cheap

that sales potential. she had a long-term interest in royal patronage of the arch and court costs human royal biography. and what that says about her is not so much that she wanted to be a queen herself. she regarded court history is a chapter in the history of art and thought it worthy of prevention. of course she may have one of the little girl being a queen herself, too. curt has said when she was a child that jackie wanted to be queen of the circus and she had a little tinfoil, said she was going to run away from the circus with the tinfoil crown. i'm sorry. but it's brzezinski with jackie at the russian tea room. brzezinski is a great storyteller and i talked to him that's hard to get a word in edgewise when you're talking to him. and jackie cerda seemed slightly pained thursday story going on a long time.

now, jackie resented being thought of as what she called justice sheltered socialite, but it has to be said that she had an interest in some of the things that sheltered socialite are interested in, too, including table settings, for example an luxurious interior design. another group of her books fixing to this category of kind of luke's interiors. she did six books with tiffany's design direct your comment john lawrie, who he considered a friend as well as an author. this is jackie with loring on the left of the kennedy library and at the right on the launch party at tiffany for one of their books. together, she and loring to fix profitable books, profitable for tiffany and profitable for

doubleday as well and included tiffany table settings, tiffany tastes, tiffany history, tiffany party, tiffany cook book. and she once told him, john isn't as great? for her next book we can go on and on in the tiffany mushroom. last night as with the book of tony frissell is photography. for the book on tiffany wedding from the superimposed picture of a sapphire engagement ring on an image of hammersmith arms, the house in newport for which she herself had been right to jfk in 1953. she also allowed this picture at first elf and jfk at a party in newport to go opposite the title page at tiffany party's.

it was her way of saying i think rather quiet week, but distinctly, to, this is who i yam. this is about something i love. and not all of her books are highbrow inquiries into the nature of art. and she wasn't ashamed to admit it. she wasn't ashamed to admit her involvement with these commercial products. steve rubin who was her boss at doubleday enemy 90s, before she died had one distinct memory of her and not as if she brought a project to him that he wasn't entirely sort of certain about any wasn't quite sure how to criticize it, he'd say jackie, this might lose money and she dropped her right away. so, she would definitely respond to that kind of stimulus from the doubleday higher-ups. okay, the next to last of these groups of her books that i'd like to talk about is a group of

books that i call camelot books. they took up themes or event of jfk's president the and of his brother, robert kennedy's shorter political career. with chicago's eugene kennedy and that is jackie and eugene kennedy and the doubleday's heat off of fifth avenue in new york, back in the kind of days when publishing still have a lot of money sloshing around for promotion, doubleday had a specific room where they would have their launch parties. it is no more. but we chicago's eugene kennedy and the doubleday's feet, she did a biography of mayor daley, which addressed the accusation that jfk had won the presidency by daley stuffing the ballot boxes in chicago. not true says the book as you might expect.

one of the other interesting dimensions of this book for me anyway is that we know jackie is a buddy who is very fierce and protect in her privacy. daly didn't want the biography of every 10 and he told eugene kennedy is much. and jackie and kennedy got the idea of cornering daily to one of the democratic convention for the 1970s and asking them personally at the convention, with the notion that he is so much was that to the kennedys and so much respect for jackie that he immediately would cave in. but he didn't cave in. we said goodbye to your privacy, he said i'll look into it. and he never called him back. but she won a habit she was willing to sponsor this biography, even though she was an unwilling subject of the biography. she also did a book with stewart udall, who was secretary of the interior under both jfk and lbj, a very strong environmentalist

before his time. he's only recently died. utah wanted to write on the legacy of the early spanish x lawyers in new mexico, so is the way, he invited them to come out to come out to arizona to go on a hike with him and his wife on the trail, which they believed had been followed by the 16th century conquistadors. and this is done shearing a plastic cup of wine to celebrate having thwarted the black river. the picture and not showing you is a picture of her almost falling in the river, but kind of udall and a friend helping her cries. jackie also helped institute the profile in courage award to recall a book of the same name by jfk, which identified

historical figures who sacrificed their political careers on questions of principle. the first aboard went to former congressman carl elliott too had lost his seat in congress and sacrificed his political career and a showdown with alabama's governor, george wallace. he was not only the first recipient of the award, the jockey also commissioned him to write his memoir for doubleday, which she published as the cost of courage and that's elliott in a wheelchair at the kennedy library with ted kennedy and jackie and caroline to receive the profile in courage award. one other book, which i think falls in this category is a biography of another crusading southerner, george frank johnson, whose landmark rulings advance so the rates for african-americans. for example, by striking down the band of local authorities wanted to please on the march with martin luther king and

others from selma to montgomery in 1965. judge frank johnson took away -- struck down the band, went ahead and the biographer made that an important event in johnson's fantasy. when the book's author went to jackie after it published and that i've been always curious why did you agree to do this book, why did you commission it. she said it's all very similar. i collabra jack and bobby talking about how much they admired him. now, this is a slightly -- a different sort of story, but also one that connects to the kennedy president lee. she was also ready to commission a book from a man she had never met before, philip myers, who came to her with a proposal to write a book about a group of russian cold war era spies who organized to give the united states early warning of any impending russian nuclear

attack. what's more surprising still is that jack identified his eye a man whom jackie have known personally, terrorists nuke was the creator at the hermitage in saint peters her, but then dissected and was at the metropolitan of new york and that's how jackie knew him. she'd been introduced at the match and they worked together on her book on russian costume. this photo given to me by his daughter, i think it came from

philip myers, but also the daughter to him is terrorists nuke with the weapon in his hand. he and his wife died in an automobile accident in france the early 1990s. after jackie heard from philip myers, his story about the cold war to be, she openly wondered whether terrorists nuke and his wife was not an accident at all, but even possibly a revenge killing. myers was willing -- was surprised he was was willing to consider his or postal even though it had come in over the transom. in other words come he didn't have a literary agent. he had no special introduction to jackie and yet it was a story that interested her and it was the story she wanted to help him when it's. when she later had talked with myers and learn some of the difficulties that might be in the road from the russian and american secret service is about

his telling the story, jackie laughed and said, you have to be careful where you're going to end up squished at the bottom of a trashcan. i think that says some thing about her courage as an editor or willingness to follow a good story when she found one. okay, that is jackie with bill moyers and her longtime can in murray's templeman. and perhaps the most interesting collection of her books is on a subject she herself knew well, that is on same, celebrity in the period and one of her proudest achievement was to have suggested a series of interviews that the moyers on pbs with a scholar of comparative religion, joseph campbell ought to be a

book. jackie said that his fascinating material. let's make a book out of it. the moyers said that not a book. i'm sure it will be. this became the power of myth and another one of her best sellers. one of his most interesting passages in the power of myth is about how ordinary people, hollywood movie star like john wayne may become something more than a cowboy, but it kind of legendary mythical figure whose liberty helped shape people's lives. she did a number of books in this area, including works on film star clara bow and jean harlow as the lesser book with michael jackson, moonwalk. all of these are about ordinary people being transformed into

something superhuman, something extraordinary and sometimes ridiculous and sometimes the meaning of results, as ashley when living legends give comfort or sheep to people's lives. it seems to me that we like to make fun of the cheapness of celebrity culture, but the power of myth invites us to reflect on how famous figures can be touchstones, guiding light even for people's lives, how in an age of declining religious faith in the west we still long for contact with human figures be regarded or done ourselves. well, we've just gone through some of the scenes of the book that she did as an editor showed you some of the images on the subject she worked with to bring those folks to life. but to get a sense of what she's like, you have to turn to something other than the images.

and i bike to and with a story told to me by paul collins, who was another young man working at doubleday at the same time as her. he was sitting on an internal desk next to the offices that had windows and he recalls sitting there at his desk and hearing a commotion down the amended the hallway and process running down the corridor he the death and they are with jacqueline onassis and striking feat for running down the corridor like a schoolgirl. she wasn't wearing any shoes. she was just tearing down the hall. she was in her 60s then.

did i just see that he asked himself? did it really happen? and his reflection was it humanized her. she was one of us. she was on deadline. it was something any of us would've done to get our books in on the deadline into print. reading jackie was also running jackie. and for the most authentic vision of that woman's intent on getting one of her titles into print turned out not to a picture of her, but to the pages of one of her hundred books. thank you very much. [applause] i think we got some time for questions and i'd love to hear from any of you if you got questions about what i've said for experience of your own you would like to bring to this.

and i think i see a hand right there. would you like me to repeat the question. or is she going to be okay? why don't you go ahead, ma'am. [inaudible] >> -- particular literary agency relied on. not that the good question. i think the answer is no. scott moyers remembered that she didn't like taking lunches with literary agents because there was a sense that if she did it with one or two, all of them would want to come and have lunch with her

see the chirping of the color and i wasn't. [laughter] and that began sort of a painting fascination with royal ridge that has something to do with my own biography. in other than that, i think you probably have to at least look a little bit further. you the psychoanalyst would have to tell me you better than me telling you. atteberry, back there in the back of the room has got a very mischievous question i can see from the look in his eyes. >> just a simple question, which is how was jackie's performance financially quiet sort of her books from a business perspective. gucci make money for doubleday in the end? to chew this money? bogus or financial performance relative to some of the other editors that were working during her time? >> i think she had a much easier time. the other editors were kept more

strictly to being sort of force to do books that were profitable year in and year out. jackie did have some bestsellers and porton money spinners for the company. the power of myth was one. but what was another. the last of the art was another bestseller. almost all the tiffany books prodded money to doubleday. i don't have a sense in the end from looking at the 100, whether or not unbalance they prodded money for doubleday. my sense is that she was allowed to do some projects that other editors would not have been allowed to do simply because she was who she was. and there was a kind of pr element both for viking and doubleday saying we have jackie onassis on staff. and so that was sort of a

thinkable which they didn't assign a dollar value to, but they regarded as a commercial benefit. good question. there is a question right here. >> just a follow-up. did your publisher wide -- you said your name was and always associated with your name on the boat. from a commercial standpoint, did the publisher wants her name on the books? >> i think they would've liked her name on the boat, but they didn't press her on that i never came across anybody asking her from the publisher's part, on publisher's point of view to actually do it. often times her authors would say, jackie, can you please acknowledge you at least? kishi did contribute to the book itself. and oftentimes she would say please don't put me in the acknowledgments. peter wanted to put in the three golden keys, this book which was

a profitable book actually on a children's book about prop. he wanted to put her name in the acknowledgments and she said no, but he true in a little picture of his daughter in a cow costume with a little balloon over her head, saying thank you for a dream, jl. [laughter] so she is fair. and one more question. well now, actually there is one more ratepayer. >> did you get cooperation with family members? >> the head of doubleday -- the head of doubleday person touched with caroline kennedy about the beginning of this project and letter go ahead but i not talk to her about these books. so, she decided -- she probably

gets about a dozen inquiries a year and she doesn't reply very much to any of them. and so i wasn't all that offended that she didn't reply. so now, i didn't have cooperation of the family, but in some ways, the books themselves are the record and those things are out there in the public and all of you can go and take a look at those books now you're so. they are on the shelves here. and so, those matters to me more than kind of personal correspondence or personal recollections of family members in the way, but cool question. thank you. >> thank you. much. [applause] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] >> that was william kuhn on booktv. for more information, visit william kuhn.com. >> according to a list from publishers weekly, here are 10 business-related books due to release this spring: