- 84
Onassis, Jacqueline Kennedy
Estimate
2,500 - 3,500 USD
bidding is closed
Description
- paper, pen
Autograph letter signed (“Jackie”), 1 page (7 3/4 x 5 1/8 in.; 197 x 130 mm) on a leaves of blue 1040 Fifth Avenue stationery, [New York], 14 November 1975, to Robert McNamara (“Dear Bob”); accompanied by an annotated copy of McNamara’s letter, written as President of the International Bank, 1 page (11 x 8 1/2 in.; 279 x 203 mm), Washington, 6 October, 1975, to President Leopold Senghor of Senegal.
Catalogue Note
Mrs. Onassis thanks McNamara for sending her a copy of his “beautiful letter” to President Senghor. It isn’t a letter—it is a document—that everyone who lives in your time should take notice of and remember.” She concludes, “They will—and they will remember you.”
The copy of McNamara’s own letter may be the one sent to Mrs. Onassis (and subsequently returned by her) or it may have been retained by McNamara, with another copy sent in its stead. The letter tells Senghor that McNamara has added to the printer version of the text of his address to the Board of Governors of the International Bank a brief meditation inspired by a line from a book of poetry by the Senegalese president, “Who would give back the memory of life to the man whose hopes are smashed?” McNamara’s response to the question is “Is not the answer: ‘All of us in this room’? Is not that the task which brings us together? Can we not during these five days take the initial steps toward action which will bring back the memory of life to the hundreds of millions of our fellow men whose hopes have been smashed?”
McNamara has added a lengthy autograph note to Mrs. Onassis at the top and bottom margins of the copy of the letter to Senghor. “Jackie, Friday evening we were talking of the ‘absolute poor’ in the developing countries, those seven or eight hundred million human beings whose nutritional, health, and literacy levels are so low as to leave them living, literally, on the margin between life and death. I mentioned that I quoted to the penny-pinching Finance Ministers a line from Senghor to try to move them emotionally to deal more effectively with the problem. This is it. I hope you like it. As I was leaving you, I fear I revealed, unintentionally, how much I miss you and how deep my love for you remains. …”
The copy of McNamara’s own letter may be the one sent to Mrs. Onassis (and subsequently returned by her) or it may have been retained by McNamara, with another copy sent in its stead. The letter tells Senghor that McNamara has added to the printer version of the text of his address to the Board of Governors of the International Bank a brief meditation inspired by a line from a book of poetry by the Senegalese president, “Who would give back the memory of life to the man whose hopes are smashed?” McNamara’s response to the question is “Is not the answer: ‘All of us in this room’? Is not that the task which brings us together? Can we not during these five days take the initial steps toward action which will bring back the memory of life to the hundreds of millions of our fellow men whose hopes have been smashed?”
McNamara has added a lengthy autograph note to Mrs. Onassis at the top and bottom margins of the copy of the letter to Senghor. “Jackie, Friday evening we were talking of the ‘absolute poor’ in the developing countries, those seven or eight hundred million human beings whose nutritional, health, and literacy levels are so low as to leave them living, literally, on the margin between life and death. I mentioned that I quoted to the penny-pinching Finance Ministers a line from Senghor to try to move them emotionally to deal more effectively with the problem. This is it. I hope you like it. As I was leaving you, I fear I revealed, unintentionally, how much I miss you and how deep my love for you remains. …”