The Jackie Handbook

Jackie O Handbook is a groundbreaking new interpretation of the life of Jackie Kennedy Onassis and the extraordinary influence of the image she so carefully crafted. It is illustrated with some 300 photographs and other images which bring to life Jackie's iconic status. Ten years since her death, fascination with Jackie O remains as strong as ever, especially among women and in the fashion world. The authors explore the woman behind - and in many ways the creator of - the many myths by which we remember a woman of extraordinary poise and single-mindedness. In the Jackie O Handbook, the authors venture behind Jackie's trademark dark glasses and regal bearing to reveal the insecurities, the playfulness, the wit, the loyalty to friends and the ruthlessness with enemies of a woman who seemed more a figure from 18th century Versailles than from 20th century America. The book chronicles Jackie's life from childhood through her student years, her marriages to America's most charismatic politician and to the richest man in the world, her dedication to her children, and her last quiet years in New York. The authors have searched archives from London to Boston, and from Washington to Paris. The book contains five original interviews with contemporaries from the worlds of fashion, design and the arts who Jackie befriended.