03/13/2023

Even before Jackie Bouvier married John F. Kennedy, she was a force to be reckoned with, according to this deeply researched biography. Spotlighting the formative period from 1949, when Jackie spent her junior year of college studying in France, to 1953, when she married JFK, historian Anthony (Why They Wore It) reveals a young woman of fierce intelligence, ambition, and persistence. After returning from France, she transferred from Vassar College to George Washington University, where she won a contest to become a junior editor in Vogue magazine’s Paris office (she eventually turned the prize down). Early in her courtship with JFK (they were first introduced by mutual friends at a dinner party in 1951 but only started seriously dating after he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1952), he asked her to translate passages from a dozen “obscure, plodding” French books and compile the material into a report on the history of France’s involvement in Indochina. “That Jack Kennedy asked her to do this, and the chance it offered her to demonstrate the power of her mind, was irresistible,” Anthony writes. He also sheds intriguing light on Jackie’s stint as a columnist for the Washington Times-Herald, the engagement she called off prior to marrying JFK, and her volatile and occasionally violent relationship with her mother. The result is a convincing and colorful reconsideration of a first lady known more for her style than her substance. (May)

In Camera Girl, Carl Anthony slows down the story of Jacqueline Bouvier so that her complexity and wide range of interests can be grasped during the period of her life before marriage, political obligation, and tragedy—when she is forming a distinct sense of what role she hopes to someday play in the larger world. From designing her red ‘Bouvier cape,’ to her descriptive letters of new cultures and shrewd assessments of individuals, to her cartooning skills, to translating and analyzing French diplomatic and military texts about Indochina, we see Jackie in her fullness. For anyone of any age, the Jackie in Camera Girl offers an example of intentional living.”
—Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton, #1 New York Times bestselling author of What Happened

“Carl Anthony has found a wholly refreshing way to look at one of the most gazed upon women in American history, while also revealing how essential Jackie Bouvier was to Jack Kennedy's intellectual and political development. Camera Girl is as delightful as it is insightful.”
—David Maraniss, New York Times bestselling author of Barack Obama: The Story

“In this charming portrait, Carl Anthony traces the genesis of Jacqueline Kennedy's mesmerizing personality. Behind her privileged upbringing, Jackie coped with a dysfunctional family and cultivated an independent spirit as well as a questing intellect. In Anthony's telling, her determination to make her way on her own terms foreshadowed her groundbreaking role as First Lady.”
—Sally Bedell Smith, New York Times bestselling author of Grace and Power: The Private World of the Kennedy White House

“A lively depiction of a young woman who relished every opportunity to regard the world from her own perspective.”
—The New Yorker, Best Books of 2023

"Whether she’s avoiding a traffic ticket after speeding in her car named Zelda, or translating books for Kennedy’s report on the history of France in Indochina, this portrait of young Jackie Bouvier shines with wit and intelligence."
—Library Journal, starred review

“Camera Girl offers one of the most detailed, nuanced portraits of Jackie to date."
—The Washington Post

“A convincing and colorful reconsideration of a first lady known more for her style than her substance . . . [Anthony] sheds intriguing light on Jackie’s stint as a columnist for the Washington Times-Herald, the engagement she called off prior to marrying JFK, and her volatile and occasionally violent relationship with her mother.”
—Publishers Weekly

“The Jacqueline Bouvier whom Carl Anthony brings to life in these deeply researched pages is a revelation. She is defiant, curious, independent—and a rule-breaker determined to chart a course that would make history take notice.”
—Karen Tumulty, author of The Triumph of Nancy Reagan

“Anthony uncovers the root of Jackie’s distinctive blend of rebelliousness and vulnerability, independence and insecurity that would attract and confound supporters and critics alike. By drawing on extensive interviews with Jackie’s contemporaries and family, oral histories, and presidential archives, Anthony delivers a well-rounded depiction of this eternally fascinating, covertly complicated, and perennially misunderstood historical and cultural icon.”
—Booklist

“What shaped Jackie Kennedy Onassis to become one of the most influential women of the 20th century? In this lively, dishy account, author Carl Anthony traces four formative years when she was Jacqueline Bouvier, negotiating her way into adulthood with a determination and an independence that belied the reserved mien she showed to the world. ‘Become distinct,’ she told herself. And so she did.”
—Susan Page, New York Times bestselling author of The Matriarch: Barbara Bush and the Making of an American Dynasty

"Prior to her marriage to John F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Bouvier was an ambitious journalist and photographer, a remarkable period of her life captured in this engaging coming-of-age biography . . . Drawing on Bouvier’s letters and interviews, Anthony pulls together a compelling portrait of a young woman facing both the problems of her time and timeless issues. Should she focus on her career or getting married? How can she be respectful to her problematic parents while still declaring her own adult independence? A well-crafted biography that could easily spawn both a delightful TV drama or a historical look at female journalists."
—Kirkus, starred review

"The preponderance of what Mr. Anthony shares with us is new information — carefully researched and clearly presented — outside of the 'Jackie canon.' The 16 pages of well-captioned photos are a valuable supplement to the text."
—The East Hampton Star

"This is not a book about Jacqueline. It’s about Jackie, the young girl and woman who yearned to be a journalist, writer, illustrator and photographer before she met the man that made her world famous. ... It’s a fascinating look inside not only who she was, but who she became."
—Fredericksburg Free Lance Star

★ 04/01/2023

Presidential families historian Anthony returns to Jackie Bouvier Kennedy, the subject of one of his previous books, As We Remember Her. This time, he focuses on the years 1949 to 1953, beginning with her arrival in Paris with a new Leica camera for a junior year at Smith College's study-abroad program. The book notes she longed for independence from her "privileged, but also traumatic" past after the bitter divorce of her parents, which left her determined to resist getting married herself. After winning—and declining—Vogue's prestigious Prix de Paris award (a year-long junior editorship with the magazine) because her mother didn't want her to leave the country at that time, Jackie became the Washington Times-Herald's "Inquiring Camera Girl" until forced to give up the job after becoming engaged to John F. Kennedy. Anthony mines her articles with aplomb, using the questions she posed to people on the streets of Washington, DC, as a window into her psyche. The book ends with her much-publicized marriage to Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy. VERDICT Whether she's avoiding a traffic ticket after speeding in her car named Zelda, or translating books for Kennedy's report on the history of France in Indochina, this portrait of young Jackie Bouvier shines with wit and intelligence.—Denise Miller

Imani Jade Powers narrates this exploration of the early life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, long before she was known as the wife of two famous men. As the WASHINGTON TIMES-HERALD's "Inquiring Camera Girl," young Jacqueline Bouvier turned an ignored part of the paper into something special while maintaining a delicate balance of debutante, daughter of divorce, and educated woman who is pushed into an unwanted marriage. Powers takes listeners through Bouvier's less-than-idyllic childhood with a sympathetic narration style that captures the complex experiences and emotions of a young woman at odds with her time. Her narration skillfully mimics Bouvier's speaking style when sharing pieces written directly by her, capturing listeners' emotions without making the performance sound over the top. V.B. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

★ 2023-03-03
A uniquely focused portrait of the former first lady before Camelot.

Prior to her marriage to John F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Bouvier (1929-1994) was an ambitious journalist and photographer, a remarkable period of her life captured in this engaging coming-of-age biography. Anthony, a former speechwriter for Nancy Reagan who has written several historical books about first ladies, digs deep into what her life was like before she became a public figure herself. He mines Bouvier’s “Inquiring Camera Girl” column, which she produced for the Washington Times-Herald from 1951 to 1953, for connections to her private life and examples of what her journalistic process was like. “Instead of asking ladies at luncheons, for example, ‘What do you think of Dior’s spring fashion line?’ she waited on a street corner for truck drivers to stop at a red light and shouted out the question,” writes Anthony. “Other times she poked at what might lie beneath the surface of those with strongly defined personas, asking circus clowns, ‘Does your smiling face hide a broken heart?’ and ‘Are you funny at home?’ ” Drawing on Bouvier’s letters and interviews, Anthony pulls together a compelling portrait of a young woman facing both the problems of her time and timeless issues. Should she focus on her career or getting married? How can she be respectful to her problematic parents while still declaring her own adult independence? When she met then-Congressman John F. Kennedy and his family, her conflicts became more emotional, especially as she broke off an engagement and dealt with Kennedy’s presidential ambitions and unorthodox courting style as well as his much-documented extramarital relationships. The fact that the book ends when Bouvier is 24 and marries Kennedy shows how impressive her early accomplishments really were.

A well-crafted biography that could easily spawn both a delightful TV drama or a historical look at female journalists.