Jackie Kennedy’s flawed memory
By Richard J. Tofel,
WashPost
Published: September 23
The recently released 1964 interviews of Jacqueline Kennedy by Arthur Schlesinger Jr. make for fascinating reading. But if the one subject on which I have some detailed knowledge is any indication, historians will need to be careful about putting too much stock in what Mrs. Kennedy said.
The subject is President John F. Kennedy’s writing partnership with Theodore Sorensen, his close aide and White House special counsel, once referred to by JFK as his “intellectual blood bank.” Mrs. Kennedy portrays her husband as the principal author of his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “Profiles in Courage,” as well as his inaugural address. Sorensen is depicted as having untruthfully claimed credit for the book, and then having greedily and ungratefully accepted all the proceeds it generated.
But the facts on these matters are known — and vary strikingly from what Mrs. Kennedy concluded. As historian Herbert Parmet demonstrated more than 30 years ago, Sorensen was the principal author of most of “Profiles in Courage.” There is no question that then-Sen. Kennedy read widely for the book as he recovered in Florida from a back operation. He also wrote first drafts of some portions of the book in longhand on legal pads, which accounts for Mrs. Kennedy’s recollections.
Sorensen said in his 2008 memoir that John Kennedy wrote the first draft of the book’s first and last chapters. But as Parmet established, there is no evidence that the senator drafted the case-study chapters that comprise the bulk of the book — and plenty of evidence that Sorensen did so. The book’s preface refers to Sorensen as Kennedy’s “research associate” who provided “assistance in the assembly and preparation of the material upon which [the] book is based.”
(More here.)
WashPost
Published: September 23
The recently released 1964 interviews of Jacqueline Kennedy by Arthur Schlesinger Jr. make for fascinating reading. But if the one subject on which I have some detailed knowledge is any indication, historians will need to be careful about putting too much stock in what Mrs. Kennedy said.
The subject is President John F. Kennedy’s writing partnership with Theodore Sorensen, his close aide and White House special counsel, once referred to by JFK as his “intellectual blood bank.” Mrs. Kennedy portrays her husband as the principal author of his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “Profiles in Courage,” as well as his inaugural address. Sorensen is depicted as having untruthfully claimed credit for the book, and then having greedily and ungratefully accepted all the proceeds it generated.
But the facts on these matters are known — and vary strikingly from what Mrs. Kennedy concluded. As historian Herbert Parmet demonstrated more than 30 years ago, Sorensen was the principal author of most of “Profiles in Courage.” There is no question that then-Sen. Kennedy read widely for the book as he recovered in Florida from a back operation. He also wrote first drafts of some portions of the book in longhand on legal pads, which accounts for Mrs. Kennedy’s recollections.
Sorensen said in his 2008 memoir that John Kennedy wrote the first draft of the book’s first and last chapters. But as Parmet established, there is no evidence that the senator drafted the case-study chapters that comprise the bulk of the book — and plenty of evidence that Sorensen did so. The book’s preface refers to Sorensen as Kennedy’s “research associate” who provided “assistance in the assembly and preparation of the material upon which [the] book is based.”
(More here.)
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