/internal/media/dispatcher/61445/fullPhotocopy of typed response letter from Jim Bishop to Jacqueline Kennedy09/28/196411 × 8 1/2 in. (27.9 × 21.6 cm)PaperThe Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza Collection2018.071.00020Photocopy 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:
(Page 1)
September 28, 1964
Mrs. John F. Kennedy
1040 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York
Dear Mrs. Kennedy:
You must be aware of the respect –nay, admiration—
I feel for you. One of the reasons I wanted to write A Day
In the Life of President Kennedy was because I felt (and still feel)
that for the first time in the history of the Republic we had
a dedicated and incorruptible president and a first lady who was
more than a fine wife, a good mother and a dutiful daughter; we
had a woman who was willing to work to lift the cultural level
of the entire country. Nothing has altered these opinions,
Mrs. Kennedy.
I am sure that you will recall that, after your
husband’s death, it was I who wrote to you, and to Robert Kennedy,
advising that you endorse one author who would write the “official”
story of the tragedy. I told you that, in researching The Day
Lincoln Was Shot from 1930 to 1954, I found so many sensational
and inaccurate versions of what happened on Good Friday 1865—all
of which are still on our library shelves—that something should
be done at once to discourage the half-truth hacks. You did it.
You selected a writer and opened the doors of information to him.
It is a good move, and I have no quarrel with it.
You might permit me a small amount of envy at not
being chosen. I too am a professional writer of substance, and
I entertained the forlorn hope that because the President had
selected me to write A Day in his life, and had asked, on two
occasions, if I could not expand the magazine material into some-
thing big enough for a book, that I might be qualified to write
the tragedy too. Still, when you made your choice I had agreed
to a contract to write such a book for Random House, and I knew
all along that many books would be written about that tragic day
in Dallas. They will be written, whether you stand in the door-
way 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 and, as Scotty Reston 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…”
(Page 2)
2. Mrs. Kennedy
Even you write: “…sometime in the future when the
pain is not so fresh I suppose I must let it appear for I have
No right to suppress history…” This morning, ten thousand
Newspapers throughout the United States published a recreation
Of Nov. 22nd, 1963. Next week, Bantom Books will place 500,000
Copies of it in the bookstores. The Government Printing Office
Has a backlog of orders for the Warren Commission Report. G. P.
Putnam’s-Coward McCann-John Day send an announcement to me that
They are publishing the European best seller: “Who Killed Kennedy?”,
By Thomas G. Buchanan. The Salinger-Vanocour book has been on
The Times best seller list for many weeks. The UPI’s “Four Days”
Has sold millions of copies. Others are being set in type.
Don’t you see, Mrs. Kennedy, that this is not a
matter of earning a profit out of a tragedy? It is living breathing
history and it is going to be told and retold down the corridors
of time as long as man is able to feel a bruise on his conscience.
If you could tell me that the story is not going to be published,
that the host of books will stop now, I would be a mean and small
man not to agree to stop my research at once. You cannot think
well of me if you do not think that I appreciate the unremitting
pain in your heart. Long ago, the prayers of this sinner were sent,
not for John F. Kennedy—who is beyond pain—but for you and the
children, who must live with the secret silent memory of perpetual
sorrow. These things have occurred to me, and others too. What
of highschool, when the children must study American history, and
when they find that, as part of their schoolwork, they must study
the public deeds of their father, and the misdeeds of the generation
which took him away from them?
Have you asked Putnan not to publish the sensational
and poorly researched Who Killed Kennedy? The reason I ask is that
I would like to know why you single my book out for personal
attention. You have asked Bennett Cerf of Random House not to pub-
lish it. Robert Kennedy has spoken to two executives of Random
House and asked them not to publish my book. I wish you would be
candid with me, as I am with you. Either you, or Robert Kennedy,
could have contacted me at any time and could have told me why
you want to stop it, but not stop the others. Is it fair to write
that all the people Mr. Manchester interviewed “were asked not to
discuss those days with anyone else—and they have all kept that
faith, and will continue to do so. So that leaves nothing but
the Warren Commission Report—which will be public anyway—for an
author like yourself to base a book on.”
(Page 3)
3…Mrs. John F. Kennedy
I cannot believe that you mean this. It doesn’t
even sound like you. To say that one many may write history,
but another may not, amounts to a personal copyright. The best
I can do, Mrs. Kennedy is to repeat an earlier offer: If you
want to discuss the matter, or Mr. Robert Kennedy does, I shall
be happy to do it, and do it with an open mind. If you want
to deny me any personal assistance, I will respect your wishes,
but I ask, in fairness, that you reopen the doors to the other
parts of the story. In return, I shall permit anyone you de-
signate to study my manuscript for errors of fact or good taste
before publication.
May I hear from you?
Sincerely,
Jim Bishop
Condition note: All three photocopied pages are in excellent condition with no damage noted. [Stephanie Allen-Givens, 11/02/2020]Documents6613521.590043180127.940055880159433LetterPhotocopy 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.LettersAuthorKennedy, John F.Kennedy, JacquelineBishop, JimManchester, WilliamWarren CommissionWarren ReportNew YorkDespite 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 ManagerJim 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