{"object":[{"sourceId":{"label":"Source ID","value":"59433"},"creditline":{"label":"Credit Line","value":"The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza Collection"},"labelText":{"label":"Description","value":"Photocopy of three-paged typed response letter from Jim Bishop to Jacqueline Kennedy written on September 28, 1964, in which Bishop argues for the necessity of his book being published. The letter is three pages and is a photocopy of the original. In the letter, Jim Bishop responds directly to Mrs. Kennedy's concerns about his proposed book, \"The Day Kennedy Was Shot.\" Jacqueline Kennedy was accustomed to carefully crafting and controlling the public image of her family, and she tried very hard to control the story of President Kennedy's death and legacy. Bishop, however, argues that this is a matter of history and that there is no controlling the story. He points out that accounts of President Kennedy's assassination \"will be written, whether you stand in the doorway to history or not. They will be written whether I die this day or not. Some writers will be conscientious and careful and objective. Some will be careless, as Scotty Retson wrote on page one of this morning's Times: 'It (the Warren Commission report) has provided enough material to intrigue the novelists and dramatists for generations to come..'.\" Bishop concludes his argument with a personal plea to Mrs. Kennedy to not stand in the way of his publication and to treat him the same as all of the other authors writing about the President."},"invno":{"label":"Object number","value":"2018.071.0002"},"description":{"label":"Description","value":"Photocopy of three-page typed response letter from Jim Bishop to Jacqueline Kennedy, 09/28/1964. Letter was written in response to letter from Jacqueline Kennedy to Jim Bishop dated 09/17/1964 in which she asks him not to write about the assassination. Bishop argues for the necessity of his book being published. The letter is three pages and is a photocopy of the original typed letter. In the letter, Jim Bishop responds directly to Mrs. Kennedy's concerns about his proposed book, The Day Kennedy Was Shot. Jacqueline Kennedy was accustomed to carefully crafting and controlling the public image of her family, and she tried very hard to control the story of President Kennedy's death and legacy. Bishop, however, argues that this is a matter of history and that there is no controlling the story. The letter reads as follows:\r\n\r\n(Page 1)\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSeptember 28, 1964\r\nMrs. John F. Kennedy\r\n1040 Fifth Avenue\r\nNew York, New York\r\n\r\nDear Mrs. Kennedy:\r\n\r\n\tYou must be aware of the respect \u2013nay, admiration\u2014\r\nI feel for you. One of the reasons I wanted to write A Day\r\nIn the Life of President Kennedy was because I felt (and still feel)\r\nthat for the first time in the history of the Republic we had\r\na dedicated and incorruptible president and a first lady who was\r\nmore than a fine wife, a good mother and a dutiful daughter; we\r\nhad a woman who was willing to work to lift the cultural level\r\nof the entire country. Nothing has altered these opinions,\r\nMrs. Kennedy.\r\n\tI am sure that you will recall that, after your\r\nhusband\u2019s death, it was I who wrote to you, and to Robert Kennedy,\r\nadvising that you endorse one author who would write the \u201cofficial\u201d\r\nstory of the tragedy. I told you that, in researching The Day\r\nLincoln Was Shot from 1930 to 1954, I found so many sensational\r\nand inaccurate versions of what happened on Good Friday 1865\u2014all\r\nof which are still on our library shelves\u2014that something should\r\nbe done at once to discourage the half-truth hacks. You did it.\r\nYou selected a writer and opened the doors of information to him.\r\nIt is a good move, and I have no quarrel with it.\r\n\tYou might permit me a small amount of envy at not\r\nbeing chosen. I too am a professional writer of substance, and\r\nI entertained the forlorn hope that because the President had\r\nselected me to write A Day in his life, and had asked, on two\r\noccasions, if I could not expand the magazine material into some-\r\nthing big enough for a book, that I might be qualified to write\r\nthe tragedy too. Still, when you made your choice I had agreed\r\nto a contract to write such a book for Random House, and I knew\r\nall along that many books would be written about that tragic day\r\nin Dallas. They will be written, whether you stand in the door-\r\nway to history or not. They will be written whether I die this\r\nday or not. Some writers will be conscientious and careful and\r\nobjective. Some will be careless and, as Scotty Reston wrote\r\non page one of this morning\u2019s Times: \u201cIt (the Warren Commission\r\nreport) has provided enough material to intrigue the novelists\r\nand dramatists for generations to come\u2026\u201d\r\n\t\r\n(Page 2)\r\n2.\tMrs. Kennedy\r\n\r\n                   Even you write: \u201c\u2026sometime in the future when the\r\npain is not so fresh I suppose I must let it appear for I have\r\nNo right to suppress history\u2026\u201d This morning, ten thousand\r\nNewspapers throughout the United States published a recreation\r\nOf Nov. 22nd, 1963. Next week, Bantom Books will place 500,000\r\nCopies of it in the bookstores. The Government Printing Office\r\nHas a backlog of orders for the Warren Commission Report. G. P. \r\nPutnam\u2019s-Coward McCann-John Day send an announcement to me that\r\nThey are publishing the European best seller: \u201cWho Killed Kennedy?\u201d,\r\nBy Thomas G. Buchanan. The Salinger-Vanocour book has been on\r\nThe Times best seller list for many weeks. The UPI\u2019s \u201cFour Days\u201d\r\nHas sold millions of copies. Others are being set in type.\r\n\tDon\u2019t you see, Mrs. Kennedy, that this is not a\r\nmatter of earning a profit out of a tragedy? It is living breathing\r\nhistory and it is going to be told and retold down the corridors\r\nof time as long as man is able to feel a bruise on his conscience.\r\nIf you could tell me that the story is not going to be published,\r\nthat the host of books will stop now, I would be a mean and small\r\nman not to agree to stop my research at once. You cannot think\r\nwell of me if you do not think that I appreciate the unremitting\r\npain in your heart. Long ago, the prayers of this sinner were sent,\r\nnot for John F. Kennedy\u2014who is beyond pain\u2014but for you and the\r\nchildren, who must live with the secret silent memory of perpetual\r\nsorrow. These things have occurred to me, and others too. What\r\nof highschool, when the children must study American history, and \r\nwhen they find that, as part of their schoolwork, they must study\r\nthe public deeds of their father, and the misdeeds of the generation\r\nwhich took him away from them?\r\n\tHave you asked Putnan not to publish the sensational\r\nand poorly researched Who Killed Kennedy? The reason I ask is that\r\nI would like to know why you single my book out for personal\r\nattention. You have asked Bennett Cerf of Random House not to pub-\r\nlish it. Robert Kennedy has spoken to two executives of Random\r\nHouse and asked them not to publish my book. I wish you would be\r\ncandid with me, as I am with you. Either you, or Robert Kennedy,\r\ncould have contacted me at any time and could have told me why\r\nyou want to stop it, but not stop the others. Is it fair to write\r\nthat all the people Mr. Manchester interviewed \u201cwere asked not to\r\ndiscuss those days with anyone else\u2014and they have all kept that\r\nfaith, and will continue to do so. So that leaves nothing but\r\nthe Warren Commission Report\u2014which will be public anyway\u2014for an\r\nauthor like yourself to base a book on.\u201d\r\n\r\n(Page 3)\r\n3\u2026Mrs. John F. Kennedy\r\n\r\n\tI cannot believe that you mean this. It doesn\u2019t\r\neven sound like you. To say that one many may write history,\r\nbut another may not, amounts to a personal copyright. The best\r\nI can do, Mrs. Kennedy is to repeat an earlier offer: If you\r\nwant to discuss the matter, or Mr. Robert Kennedy does, I shall\r\nbe happy to do it, and do it with an open mind. If you want\r\nto deny me any personal assistance, I will respect your wishes,\r\nbut I ask, in fairness, that you reopen the doors to the other\r\nparts of the story. In return, I shall permit anyone you de-\r\nsignate to study my manuscript for errors of fact or good taste\r\nbefore publication.\r\n\r\n\tMay I hear from you?\r\n\t\t\t\tSincerely,\r\n\t\t\t\tJim Bishop\r\n\r\nCondition note: All three photocopied pages are in excellent condition with no damage noted. [Stephanie Allen-Givens, 11/02/2020]"},"medium":{"label":"Medium","value":"Paper"},"onview":{"label":"On View","value":"0"},"media":{"label":"Media","value":[{"mediaURL":"https://emuseum.jfk.org/internal/media/dispatcher/61443/full","displayOrder":"0","mediaType":"Image","mediaId":"61443"},{"mediaURL":"https://emuseum.jfk.org/internal/media/dispatcher/61444/full","displayOrder":"0","mediaType":"Image","mediaId":"61444"},{"mediaURL":"https://emuseum.jfk.org/internal/media/dispatcher/61445/full","displayOrder":"0","mediaType":"Image","mediaId":"61445"},{"mediaURL":"https://emuseum.jfk.org/internal/media/dispatcher/62281/full","displayOrder":"0","mediaType":"Document","mediaId":"62281"}]},"title":{"label":"Title","value":"Photocopy of typed response letter from Jim Bishop to Jacqueline Kennedy"},"classification":{"label":"Classifications","value":"Documents"},"primaryMedia":{"label":"PrimaryMedia","value":"/internal/media/dispatcher/61445/full"},"thesconcepts":{"label":"Terms","value":["Letters","Author","Kennedy, John F.","Kennedy, Jacqueline","Bishop, Jim","Manchester, William","Warren Commission","Warren Report","New York"]},"culture":{"label":"Object","value":"Letter"},"displayDate":{"label":"Date","value":"09/28/1964"},"width":{"label":"Width","value":["21.5900431801"]},"textEntriesTextentries":{"label":"Curatorial Commentary","value":["Despite Mrs. Kennedy's objections, Jim Bishop proceeded with his book, The Day Kennedy Was Shot, which was published in 1968. - Stephanie Allen-Givens, Collections and Exhibits Manager","Jim Bishop (1907-87) started his journalistic career at the New York Daily Mirror in 1930. He would go on to serve as associate editor of Collier's Magazine, executive editor of Liberty Magazine and a longtime columnist with King Features Syndicate, though by the 1950s he was primarily recognized as a best-selling author. In addition to a series of religious titles, his 1955 examination of the Lincoln assassination, The Day Lincoln Was Shot, sold more than 3 million copies. He continued his focus on the presidency the following year with a Cosmopolitan article, \"A Day with Dwight D. Eisenhower.\" He had just completed the manuscript for the book, A Day in the Life of President Kennedy, ten days before the assassination. The book was published the following year and was one of the top ten books in sales for 1964. A follow-up title, A Day in the Life of President Johnson, was published in 1967. Some four years after his correspondence with Mrs. Kennedy, Bishop's The Day Kennedy Was Shot was finally published in 1968. As of 2020, the book remains in print more than half a century later. - Stephen Fagin, Curator"]},"id":{"label":"Id","value":"66135"},"dimensions":{"label":"Dimensions","value":"11 × 8 1/2 in. (27.9 × 21.6 cm)"},"height":{"label":"Height","value":["27.9400558801"]}}]}