Lot 70
  • 70

Onassis, Jacqueline Kennedy

Estimate
3,000 - 5,000 USD
bidding is closed

Description

  • paper, pen
7 autograph letters signed (“Jackie”), totaling 8 pages on 7 sheets of various personal stationery, [New York, 1967–1972], all to Margaret McNamara, one letter accompanied by original autograph envelope, one accompanied by original typed envelope, 3 of the letters docketed in pencil by Robert McNamara with their dates (“6/1/67”; “2/28/68”; “1/72”).

Catalogue Note

This series of letters is composed principally of thank-you notes to Mrs. McNamara, some quite brief (“Thank you so much for your sweet letter—It touched me very much to hear from you.”; “I wish I could send you everything in the world to make you happy—but it is just miserable cheesecake & all my love.”), but others of more substance, including recognition of Mrs. McNamara’s work with the Reading Is Fundamental program and warm reminiscences of exchanged Christmas presents. But the most surprising and revealing letter in the group discusses the christening ceremony of the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy, 27 May 1967:

“I was hoping to see you at the Carrier—what would we have done without Bob—? When he sent the President off the stand to that reception—saying we’d be right along—then whisked us all to a helicopter—I was just holding my breath for him!—and I was so grateful to have been able to come & go so quickly—as the whole day & the anticipation of it had me in a kind of trance—and seeing all the familiar faces in the crowd just made it more so.” Of Washington Post reporter Maxine Cheshire, whose stories combined politics, society, and gossip, Mrs. Kennedy observed, “Gosh—she must be a bowl of jello now!” In the same letter, she declines the McNamaras’ invitation to host her for dinner “before Ethel & Bobby’s party,” explaining “I don’t think I will come to Washington—though I know it will be lovely.”