{"object":[{"sourceId":{"label":"Source ID","value":"66792"},"creditline":{"label":"Credit Line","value":"The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza Collection"},"labelText":{"label":"Description","value":"Handwritten letter from Jacqueline Kennedy to John Steinbeck dated February 15, 1964. The letter is two pages, front and back. The body of the letter is written in blue ink on letterhead that reads \"Mrs. John F. Kennedy\" in black printed text. There is a black border around the edge of the front of each page. In the letter Jacqueline Kennedy asks John Steinbeck to write a book about her husband and describes in some detail how she wants Kennedy\u2019s legacy to take shape and what she does not like about others\u2019 attempts to memorialize him. She mentions that she wants her husband \"to pass into legend\" and is very emphatic about the fact that she was to be in control of approving any publication related to her husband. Jacqueline Kennedy was accustomed to carefully crafting and controlling the public image of her family, and ultimately, she recognized the importance of trying to control the story of President Kennedy's death and legacy. She concludes the letter by stating that she hopes Steinbeck chooses to take on the project of creating a book and that she does not want her husband's life to be a \"lost cause.\""},"invno":{"label":"Object number","value":"2019.104.0001"},"description":{"label":"Description","value":"Handwritten letter from Jacqueline Kennedy to John Steinbeck dated February 15, 1964. The letter is two pages, front and back. The body of the letter is written in blue ink on letterhead that reads \"Mrs. John F. Kennedy\" in black printed text. There is a black border around the edge of the front of ecah page. In the letter Jacqueline Kennedy asks John Steinbeck to write a book about her husband and describes in some detail how she wants Kennedy\u2019s legacy to take shape and what she does not like about others\u2019 attempts to memorialize him. The letter reads as follows:\r\n\r\n(Page 1)\r\n\r\nSunday Feb 15, 1964\r\n\r\nDear Mr. Steinbeck\r\n\r\n\tI looked through all the pictures \u2013 and they\r\nare just what I suspected \u2013 nothing \u2013\r\nAll Jacque Lowes best photographs were in his first book.\r\nHe has padded this out with a lot of pictures of\r\ndreary meetings and some family pictures that were\r\ndiscarded before and which I intend to see he \r\nnever publishes.\r\n\tI think it is awful of Jacque Lowe to try and\r\nmake a few extra pennies off the President in this\r\nway. If it was Vikings idea \u2013 I am surprised.\r\n\tIt is something the family will give no sanction to\r\nand I don\u2019t think you should be associated with it\r\nin any way.\r\n\tI know what I think you should do now \u2013 a\r\nbook on your own \u2013 as we were all beginning to\r\nthink at the end of our meeting together.\r\n\r\n(Page 2)\r\n\tWhat you said about the Arthurian cycle,\r\nall the way you pictured what you would do, is\r\nwhat I wish so much to be written about Jack \u2013 \r\nWho but you could do it? I want him to pass\r\ninto legend \u2013 That is the way I always saw\r\nhim.\r\n\tYou might tell Tom Quinzberg how I feel\r\nabout a book of photographs \u2013 It should be done\r\na long while from now \u2013 when Mark Shaw and everyone\u2019s\r\nphotographs are available. It should be the finest thing\r\nof its kind \u2013 The most brilliant layout people should work\r\non it \u2013 I picture something like David Duncan\u2019s book\r\non Picasso \u2013 a large book. If I approved of it I\r\nwould give my own photographs to it \u2013 I was always\r\ntaking pictures of my husband and children and some of\r\nthem are touching \u2013 Maybe Viking will do that book.\r\nMaybe someone else \u2013 that depends on Tom\u2019s imagination \u2013 \r\nBut the photograph book should be the definitive one \u2013 there is\r\n\r\n(Page 3)\r\nno hurry for it \u2013 and only to a book of which I\r\napprove will I give sanction \u2013 and a host of pictures from\r\nsources that no one but me even knows about nw.\r\n\tBut a book like that could really be done in a\r\nhundred years \u2013 by a brilliant editor-\r\n\tBut a hundred years from now you won\u2019t be here \u2013 \r\nnor will anyone who was struck by his death and\r\nforever wounded by it \u2013\r\n\tYou were at Jack\u2019s Inauguration \u2013 You know the place\r\nthat you have in the letters of this country \u2013 \r\nIf you decide to do the kind of thing you\r\nspoke of \u2013 then Bobby and I would help you\r\nin every way \u2013 although we are not much help\r\nto anyone right now.\r\n\tI hope you do decide \u2013 You can write\r\n\r\n(Page 4)\r\nto me (send it to Max or I wont get it for weeks)\r\nor we can meet \u2013 or you can tell Max what you\r\nhave decided if that is easier.\r\n\tTwelve days before Jack died, we had the\r\nBlack Watch at the White House \u2013 He spoke of\r\nhow the history of Scotland captured him at an\r\nearly age \u2013 \u201cbecause I suppose, all of us in a sense are\r\ndrawn to lost causes\u201d \u2013 I saw the film of that\r\nthe other day. All I can think of is \u2013 Is Jack\u2019s\r\nlife going to be a lost cause? \u2013 He did care so\r\nabout lost causes \u2013 I can tell you of all his heroes \u2013 \r\nbut he did not want his life to be that.\r\n\tUnfortunately \u2013 you met me at the worst time in my\r\nlife. I know I must be like Jack and keep fighting \u2013 but\r\nthere seems no reason to anymore \u2013\r\n\tBut I will try to be out of this slump by the time I\r\nsee you again \u2013 if you decide that is to happen \u2013 Thank You.\r\n\r\n\t\t\t\tSincerely\r\n\t\t\t\t\tJacqueline Kennedy\r\n\r\nCondition Note: Letter is in excellent condition with no bleeding of smudging in the ink visible. [Stephanie Allen-Givens, 10/28/2020]"},"medium":{"label":"Medium","value":"Paper"},"onview":{"label":"On View","value":"0"},"media":{"label":"Media","value":[{"mediaURL":"https://emuseum.jfk.org/internal/media/dispatcher/55495/full","displayOrder":"0","mediaType":"Image","mediaId":"55495"},{"mediaURL":"https://emuseum.jfk.org/internal/media/dispatcher/55496/full","displayOrder":"0","mediaType":"Image","mediaId":"55496"},{"mediaURL":"https://emuseum.jfk.org/internal/media/dispatcher/55497/full","displayOrder":"0","mediaType":"Image","mediaId":"55497"},{"mediaURL":"https://emuseum.jfk.org/internal/media/dispatcher/55498/full","displayOrder":"0","mediaType":"Image","mediaId":"55498"},{"mediaURL":"https://emuseum.jfk.org/internal/media/dispatcher/62279/full","displayOrder":"0","mediaType":"Document","mediaId":"62279"}]},"title":{"label":"Title","value":"Handwritten letter from Jacqueline Kennedy to John Steinbeck, 02/15/1964"},"classification":{"label":"Classifications","value":"Documents"},"primaryMedia":{"label":"PrimaryMedia","value":"/internal/media/dispatcher/55497/full"},"depth":{"label":"Depth","value":["0E-10"]},"thesconcepts":{"label":"Terms","value":["Letters","Memoirs","Memories","Letterhead","Author","Kennedy, John F.","Kennedy, Jacqueline","Steinbeck, John","Washington, D.C."]},"culture":{"label":"Object","value":"Letter"},"displayDate":{"label":"Date","value":"02/15/1964"},"width":{"label":"Width","value":["15.8750317501"]},"textEntriesTextentries":{"label":"Curatorial Commentary","value":["In the letter, Jacqueline Kennedy mentions s statement by Steinbeck about the \"Arthurian cycle.\" One week after the assassination, in an exclusive Life magazine interview with Teddy White, Jackie famously crafted the Camelot myth, linking her husband's brief presidency with the heroic legend of King Arthur. - Stephanie Allen-Givens, Collections and Exhibits Manager","While Nobel prize-winning author John Steinbeck appreciated President Kennedy's patronage and support of the arts and even attended the President's Inauguration in 1961, he never ended up writing the book Jacqueline Kennedy begged him to write before his death in 1968. - Stephanie Allen-Givens, Collections and Exhibits Manager","Steinbeck scholar Dr. William Ray described John Steinbeck as a \"staunch New Deal Deal Democrat with small town Republican roots and a record of wartime advice to his hero Franklin Roosevelt...\"  Steinbeck supported two-time Democratic presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson over John F. Kennedy in 1960. However, once Kennedy secured the Democratic nomination, Steinbeck actively supported him and attended Kennedy's 1961 inauguration, after being personally invited by the Kennedys. Steinbeck met with President Kennedy on several occasions and was selected by the president to receive the Medal of Freedom, though Kennedy did not live to present the honor himself. (It was presented by President Johnson in September 1964.) On November 22, 1963, Steinbeck and his wife Elaine were in Warsaw on a U.S. cultural mission. Deeply impacted by the assassination, the Steinbecks attended a memorial service at a cathedral in Vienna. Upon his return to the United States, Steinbeck wrote a condolence letter to Mrs. Kennedy. According to Steinbeck biographer Jackson Benson, Mrs. Kennedy thought that Steinbeck was \"the writer most suitable\" to write President Kennedy's definitive biography. Ultimately, Steinbeck declined because the book idea he had in mind was not an \"orthodox biography.\" Benson writes that Steinbeck never completed his own autobiography for much the same reason. Steinbeck died at the age of 66 on December 20, 1968. -- Stephen Fagin, Curator"]},"id":{"label":"Id","value":"66138"},"dimensions":{"label":"Dimensions","value":"9 1/4 × 6 1/4 in. (23.5 × 15.9 cm)"},"height":{"label":"Height","value":["23.4950469901"]}}]}