Grace and Power: The Private World of the Kennedy White House

by Sally Bedell Smith

New York Times bestselling author Sally Bedell Smith takes us inside the Kennedy White House with unparalleled access and insight. Having interviewed scores of Kennedy intimates, including many who have never spoken before, and drawing on letters and personal papers made available for the first time, Smith paints a richly detailed picture of the personal relationships behind the high purpose and political drama of the twentieth century's most storied presidency.

At the dawn of the 1960s, a forty-three-year-old president and his thirty-one-year-old first lady – the youngest couple ever to occupy the White House – captivated the world with their easy elegance and their cool conviction that anything was possible. Jack and Jackie Kennedy gathered around them an intensely loyal and brilliant coterie of intellectuals, journalists, diplomats, international jet-setters and artists. Perhaps as never before, Washington was sharply divided between the “ins” and the “outs.”

In his public life, JFK created a New Frontier, stared down the Soviets, and devoted himself to his wife and children. As first lady, Jackie mesmerized foreign leaders and the American people with her style and sophistication, creating a White House renowned for its beauty and culture. Smith brilliantly recreates the glamorous pageant of the Kennedy years, as well as the daily texture of the Kennedy's’ marriage, friendships, political associations, and, in Jack’s case, multiple love affairs.

Smith’s striking revelations include new information about what drew Jack to his numerous mistresses – and what effects the relationships ultimately had on the women; about the rivalries and resentments among Kennedy’s advisers; and about the poignant days before and after Kennedy’s assassination.

Smith has fashioned a vivid and nuanced portrait not only of two extraordinary individuals but of a new age that sprang to life around them.

Genres: Biography, History, Nonfiction, Politics, American History, Biography Memoir, Presidents

605 pages, Mass Market Paperback

Published May 30, 2006

About the author

Author of six biographies: Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch (Random House 2102); For Love of Politics: Bill and Hillary Clinton: The White House Years (Random House 2007); Grace and Power: The Private World of the Kennedy White House (Random House 2004); Diana In Search of Herself: Portrait of a Troubled Princess (Random House 2004); Reflected Glory: The Life of Pamela Churchill Harriman (Simon & Schuster, 1996); In All His Glory: The Life and Times of William S. Paley and the Birth of Modern Broadcasting (Simon & Schuster, 1990).
Contributing Editor at Vanity Fair since 1996.
Previously cultural news reporter for The New York Times, staff writer for TV Guide, and reporter-researcher for Time Magazine.
Awarded the Sigma Delta Chi Distinguished Service Award for magazine reporting in 1982; fellow at the Freedom Forum Media Studies Center at Columbia University from 1986 to 1987.
B.A. from Wheaton College and M.S. from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Reviews

[CoachJim · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Don’t let it be forgot,
that once there was a spot,
for one brief shining moment
that was known as Camelot.”
From the musical Camelot.

John Kennedy was President for two years, ten months, and two days—a brief shining moment. The accomplishments during his presidency were not all that he or we wished. But he and Jacqueline Kennedy were an attractive, articulate and appealing First Couple. They offered us hope for a better world and they inspired us to appreciate intelligence and the arts. With their style and elegance they were people we could be proud of as they represented America to the world. This book is a story of their time in the White House.

Any historical or political significance is buried by the descriptions of the clothes Jackie Kennedy wore, or the numerous mistresses of Jack Kennedy, or the dinners and dances held by the First Couple, including descriptions of the menus. But some Kennedy scholars might find value in the accounts of his relationships with his family, friends and world leaders, including Harold Macmillan, Nikita Khrushchev, and Charles de Gaulle.

The assassination of President Kennedy makes the last section of the book rather morose. There are accounts of meetings where people would be seeing Kennedy for the last time. Regardless of the caliber of this history or your opinion of John Kennedy the description of the events in Dallas and the days following will bring tears to the eyes of most people.

“There will be great presidents again but there will never be another Camelot.”
Jacqueline Kennedy

[KOMET · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having finished this book a short time ago, I feel as if I've been put through the wringer emotionally. The lives of President Kennedy and the First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy seem to be the stuff of which epic novels and poems are made. Yet, they were very real people faced with many difficult challenges and tragedies. By her own admission, Jackie Kennedy once confided to a close friend that life without JFK would have "all been a wasteland, and I would have known it every step of the way."

The book begins with the moment of John F. Kennedy's election as President of the U.S. in 1960 and takes the reader through the thousand days of his Administration. The reader comes to be acquainted with a variety of people great and small who were either a part of President Kennedy's inner circle, worked closely with him or Jacqueline Kennedy on the various projects and endeavors that came to symbolize the achievements and legacy of the Kennedy White House, or knew the President on a deeply personal, intimate level. This book is no hagiography. Nor is it a scathing critique of the Kennedy Administration. It is, rather, a full, comprehensive, balanced and objective (inasmuch as any account of a great, historical figure's life as a biography can be) of what was a truly remarkable human being and President.

For any reader wanting to know more about JFK and the people whose lives were directly touched and influenced by him, the author has at least 100 pages of notes which amply attest to the amount of thorough research she carried out on her subject: the Kennedy White House years.

More than anything, "Grace and Power: The Private World of the Kennedy White House" has deepened my fascination with President Kennedy. He and his wife inspired Americans to be the best of what they could be, using their talents and labors to help build a better society through public service, encouraged the flowering of the arts and culture in a way that has seldom been done in this country, and spoke to the noblest aspirations of people the world over. Here was a leader with wit, a fierce intelligence, style, courage, great compassion, and class who, even in death, continues to inspire millions. President Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy cast a light across the firmament that continues to blaze brightly. This is a book that I RECOMMEND HIGHLY for anyone who wants to understand why they became special to us and remain so.

[K Ogie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly great with no new information. However, I enjoyed the varying perspectives. Great to read about a president acting like a president and taking care of business. Still handedly my favorite president. What an interesting family.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never have I read so strong and thorough a biography of the Kennedys as the one Bedell-Smith put forth in this book. Not only does it touch on the key aspects of the presidency (the numerous women, Cuban Missile Crisis, and assassination), but it also delves into the lives of the POTUS and FLOTUS and their rocky marriage. She takes many interviews and spins them into strong stories, tied together with excellent narration.

So strong a book yet filled with the good and bad of the Kennedys, it leaves the reader to decide for themselves what they think and how it all comes out in the wash. From JFK and RFK's womansing to Jackie continual contemplation of leaving her family behind. Bedell-Smith illustrates a White House before the 24 hour news cycle, as both Kennedys head off to their own thing, with their own people.

Kudos Madam Bedell-Smith. My eyes are truly opened to the stars of Camelot.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always had a thing for the Kennedys. I was a huge assassination buff in my teens and whilst I've grown out of that I'm still fascinated by the image of glamour and youth and excitement that they projected. I think America lost something the day JFK was assassinated and they've not got it back yet. But anyway, I digress. This is very good book, nothing earth-shattering or ground-breaking, but it focuses much more on Jack and Jackie's private life, their relationships with their friends, family and each other, than it does on the political side of things. It's not an obseqious read either - it doesn't gloss over JFK's infidelities, for example. It's perhaps longer than it needs to be and I could have done with less detail about Jackie's clothes, but you can't have everything, I suppose!

[LaurieH118 · Rating 5 out of 5]

All the well-known incidents of Kennedy's 1000 Days are here, but I don't think you'll find anything substantial you didn't know about The Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missle Crisis, Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, etc. What makes this book special are the highly credible anecdotes about the President and First Lady, the little things that make them come to life. I enjoyed reading about President Kennedy's complicated relationship with Adlai Stevenson and his fascination with the men women found attractive, and why. I also was intrigued by Jackie's ambivalence about her role as First Lady and her role in history, which seemed to be a reflection of her ambivalence about her marriage to the fascinating, trying man she loved. The tales in this book lend texture and depth to our understanding of the Presidency that helped shaped the turbulent 1960s.

[Sommer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well researched and interesting account of the Kennedy Administration. It also deals a lot with the complex relationship between Jackie and JFK. I would recommend it for anyone wanting an intimate glimpse into the Kennedy years. Just be prepared to cry...you know the end, but it still gets you. The author spares no detail in describing the death of JFK and it breaks your heart all over again.

[David Elliott · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew Jack was a ladies man, but I had no idea to this extent. Still considered him a very good president. Very impressed with Jackie also. Quite a lady.

[Crystal Hammon · Rating 3 out of 5]

When John F. Kennedy was assassinated, I was three years old—too young to really remember the tragedy or study his legacy in school, too old to be ignorant of the influence he and his wife had on Americans. Grace and Power reveals how history intersected with the couple’s relationship to a coterie of intellectuals, policy makers, family, friends and each other. If you enjoy history and biographies and like having a book on your nightstand that is easily sandwiched between other books you’re reading, this one fills the bill. Reading Grace and Power is like watching The West Wing of the early 1960s, witnessing the decisions, debates, triumphs, tragedies, extravagancies, indulgences and shenanigans of the Kennedy White House years. The author also illuminates Jackie’s influence on a badly needed White House renovation and the complexity of her relationship with her husband—a marriage marred by JFK’s insatiable and undeniable appetite for smart, beautiful women. This is a story of two learned, privileged people and how they captivated the world together.

[Jodi Vicario · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not well written and I didn’t get beyond 20% of the book

[Joseph J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one reason why I look forward to Sally Bedell Smith's new book on Prince Charles. I really enjoyed her book on the Kennedys in the White House. This is a subject too often exploited and sensationalized. Smith's book is honest and cites faults where they exist and the admirable when they triumph. Much was packed into the 1000 days in the White House. This is a clear, well written and truly balanced account of two remarkable lives in a brief period of history-which we still feel today.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gave me a new admiration particularly for Jacqueline Kennedy and what she accomplished in restoring some of the grandeur and history to the White House rooms - and at such a young age.

[Michelle S · Rating 5 out of 5]

I throughly enjoyed the book from start to finish.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as gossipy as I expected it to be, which is a relief. Instead, Smith presents a well-balanced, carefully researched look behind the curtain of Camelot. Which is not to say this book is without its share of juicy tidbits about the goings-on in the JFK administration, from the president on down. That, however, enables us to see the First Family as real human beings, with faults and weaknesses -- mixed in this case with grace and greatness. Ultimately a heart-wrenching, terribly sad story that leaves us asking, over and over again, "What if?"

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well this book is certainly taking me a while to finish. I was surprised at the amount of little details in this book that I did not know about. For example, I remember something about the size of shoe Jackie wore. Also it was amazing to see Jackie's detailed oriented character and impeccable taste throughout the book. In addition, you also saw the private side of Jackie meaning how she would pick and choose the different events that she attended or did not attend during her tenure in the White House.

In regards to Jack you really learned the type of person he was as well as several the challenges he faced through the numerous campaigns and finally the presidency. I also did not know the little details about his funeral that Jackie and planning this really wanted it to be a happy occasion and reflect the true person that Jack was. This was very apparent when she stated that she did not want a eulogy at the funeral more so she wanted famous quotes or passages that he had used throughout his life. What touched me the most was not using the 23rd Psalm but yet Ecclesiastes. I also find it interesting that at the graveside service both Ted and Bobby were scheduled to give some remarks and both were stricken by grief that the remarks went unspoken.

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a sucker for pictures when it comes to books and the pictures in various sections throughout this book never cease to amaze me. They have a way of really capturing who the people were and I command the author for that.

Finally the thing I like most about this book is in both the beginning and the end of the book you get a list of people that had a huge impact on the Kennedys. When the book starts out you learn who the person is and how they were involved in the Kennedy group and then when you finally get to the end of the book you learn what happened to that person after the Kennedy Administration had come to an end.

So overall this was one of the better Kennedy books I have read and I liked it for all its intimate details and the true reflections of the people.

[Buck Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book - I think it was an honest recounting of what JFK and Jackie were like during their time together in the White House.

The author portrayed Jackie as a complex figure - brilliant, moody, cultured, pampered, driven, and lazy - all wrapped up into this branded image we now know as "Jacqueline Kennedy". It was amazing how little time she actually spent in the White House doing First Lady type of events and functions. And yet, we still associate her as the quintessential icon of that role.

Jack Kennedy also came across as a less than perfect figure. His indecisiveness on most of the key questions of the age - Cuba, civil rights, and his relations with Russia - are all on full display, not to mention the growing problem of Vietnam, which would bring down LBJ's presidency. His personality was dangerously wreckless, and his physical weaknesses hidden from public view through the complicity of the press corps as well as his heavy drug use, make him hardly the prototype that we would want in a modern leader.

And yet ... despite all of this, how can we not love them and their time in the White House. When you read this remarkable book, you feel transported back to an earlier, more innocent and refined time. For those who love presidential histories, I highly recommend this book.

[Bookmarks Magazine]

Vanity Fair contributing editor Smith has written a glossy, gossipy, but serious account of the Kennedys' White House Years. If you're looking for analysis of the Bay of Pigs or Cuban missile crisis, turn to one of the other thousand Kennedy books (see below). Grace and Power, a social history of the Camelot couple, contains just enough political asides to interest history buffs. But Smith, a consummate researcher and reporter, focuses mainly on minutiae, from Jackie's Cassini-designed wardrobe to her discussion with a doctor about foreplay techniques. Nonetheless, she presents a diverse array of characters, particularly Jackie, with flair and sophistication. One caveat: this book, notes the Washington Post, "should carry a warning label: ‘Not for those with a low tolerance for treacle.'"

This is an excerpt from a review published in Bookmarks magazine.

[Whitney]

This was a Christmas gift from Sean, which is sort of funny to me. I'm not a huge Kennedy fan/freak and he said he more wanted to buy me a gossipy book than a Kennedy book.

Anyway. It's a social history of their White House and it's been kind of fun to read it with all the Obama transition. The chapters on Kennedy's affairs and his professional/personal attitudes towards women sort of make me hate him.

I'm about halfway through and have been picking it up here and there--little pieces of sugary gossip. For instance, did you know that Kennedy used to swim nude in the White House pool with both male reporters and female staffers, sometimes at the same time? True story.

[Nathan · Rating 1 out of 5]

A trifling, gossipy gabfest with sporadic episodes of political/historical reportage. Given the Kennedys' reputation for regality, I wasn't surprised at the Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous shtick, but I was disappointed that this more superficial aspect wasn't connected in any meaningful way to what little historical narrative there was. I learned some things (precious few, given the bulk of the book) that I didn't know (details of JFK's several affairs and physical ailments), but the new information felt useless, because it wasn't shown to have any implications to the rest of the story. Boring and shallow.

[Christina Abel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was well written, and gave me an insight into the private lives of the First Couple. Smith did a very good job researching the book by speaking with many of the people who were included in the Kennedy's social circle(s). I had never heard of Jacqueline Kennedy restoring the White House before reading this book, and I was fascinated with the detail with which Smith resurrects this information. I was also unaware that the Kennedys included a school in the White House for their children and their children's friends. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about the Kennedys and their lifestlyle(s).

[Ashley Torres · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were so many stories and so many things that I truly had no idea about! I think the reader gets a great overview of the Kennedy family, and it definitely seems like a personal view in. I’ve always has such a idolized view of the Kennedy family and I felt like this book definitely didn’t hold back on sharing all sides, it wasn’t glamorized or smoothed out, I think it was pretty straight forward. I will say I wasn’t a huge fan of the narrative, it was hard to follow the stories and who the players were. While I would have enjoyed a more formatted style, I also think this style served a purpose.

[Eva Staggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author did a splendid job in capturing their lives, interactions with each other, as well as with the white house staffs, the president's cabinet, family friends, and their children. The more you read the more you get to know JFK and Jackie as their own person and marvel at the strength and grace that Jackie had shown throughout their marriage.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's like walking around with the Kennedys as they go through the White House years. I've read one other book by this author and they've both been such detailed accounts but told in a way that you want to just keep on reading.

[Sheri Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good but very long. Glad I stuck with it. I read this during the summer when my dad was very sick and I can remember reading parts to him. 😍

[Negin · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the one hand, I liked this book because it wasn’t full of all the excess praise and adulation that other books on the Kennedys tend to have. As far as biographies go, this one was truly fair. It was also thoroughly researched and goes into great detail. Lots of it. On the other hand, the Kennedys don’t interest me that much. If they did, I would give this give it 4 or 5 stars. The more that I read, the more I realized that I really don’t care for them much at all. I would only recommend this book to those who are truly interested in them. It is a very dense and lengthy book after all.

Children
“Jackie had talked of her need to be with her children in the White House. ‘If you bungle raising your children,’ she said, ‘I don’t think whatever else you do matters very much.’”

Eerie Foreshadowing
“’I’m forty-three years old,’ Kennedy told his aide Kenny O’Donnell. ‘I’m not going to die in office. So the vice-presidency doesn’t mean anything.’”

“Somewhat chillingly, Johnson confided his rationale to journalist Clare Boothe Luce: ‘I looked it up,’ he said. 'One out of every four presidents has died in office. I’m a gamblin’ man, darlin’, and this is the only chance I got.’”

Versailles
“Richard Neustadt, then a professor of government at Columbia University, mused that the Kennedy ‘court life,’ a cynosural arrangement last seen in the White House of Theodore Roosevelt, had the equivalent of ‘apartments at Versailles’ and ‘latch keys for the weekends.’ The columnist Stewart Alsop complained after one year of the Kennedy administration, ‘The place is lousy with courtiers and ladies in waiting—actual or would be.’ As with court life in earlier centuries, the Kennedy entourage made a stately progress: from the White House to expensive homes in the Virginia hunt country, to Palm Beach, Hyannis Port, and Newport—all playgrounds for the rich and privileged.”

“’Jackie wanted to do Versailles in America,’ said Oleg Cassini, her official dress designer and self-described ‘de facto courtier close to the king and queen.’ ‘She said this many times,’ Cassini added. ‘She had realized some very smart women encouraged a court throughout history.’ In particular Jackie admired Madame de Maintenon, who presided over a legendary salon before marrying Louis XIV, and Madame de Récamier, the early nineteenth-century hostess famous for the wit and intelligence of her gatherings.”



You were either in or out
“Kennedy ‘hated dimness,’ said Isaiah Berlin. ‘Anybody who was dim, no matter how virtuous, how wise, how . . . noble . . . [was] no good to him.’ Nor was anyone with less than one hundred percent loyalty. “The Kennedys were pretty tough eggs,’ said Marian Schlesinger. ‘Either you were in or you were out. . . . I think the Kennedys really turned people into courtiers. . . . They manipulated and used people in a rough way.’ Jack and Jackie Kennedy would quite literally command their courtiers to sing and dance. Paul “Red” Fay, who became friendly with JFK during World War II, routinely performed ‘Hooray for Hollywood,’ yelling out the lines as JFK doubled over with laughter. Oleg Cassini would launch into his ‘Chaplin walk’ or the latest dance step from New York nightclubs. ‘Kennedy knew he was a potentate, and at a dinner for 150 he would point a finger at you and say, ‘Talk,’” said Cassini. ‘Was I a performing seal? Yes, and it was a slightly naughty thing. He did it to a lot of people. In Palm Beach after a heavy lunch he told everyone to do pushups and everyone did, trying to impress him.’”

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a while to settle in to this book, because I kept trying to read it as a biography of either or both of the Kennedys, but it isn't a biography like that. It is, as the title says, an account of those years of the Kennedy White House- Camelot, if you like. Background information is filled in, so you know the facts of biography, but in another sense they both spring into life fully blown at Kennedy's election. It is a fascinating look at a time that isn't so long ago chronologically (to this Boomer, at least) but in so many ways is another time altogether. And not, it feels, for the better. In just one example of how far we have fallen, Kennedy appointed Republicans to his important financial posts because he said his father always said there wasn't a Democrat alive who knew a damn thing about money. So instead of appointing strictly along party lines, he actually considered what would be - gasp - best for the country. Where are those people now? Do we even produce them anymore? Anyway. It was no surprise to learn that there were many shenanigans going on in the White House but how many, and in how many other places, and how many people knew, was a surprise. These accounts also showed me ways that my memory of events, like the Cuban Missile Crisis, was colored by the message given out. I always believed the Soviets installed those missiles in Cuba as a deliberate act of aggression, totally unprovoked. But come to find out a) we had planted missiles in Turkey right ON the Soviet Union's border first, and b) Castro called in their help because we kept trying to kill him. The book is full of mini biographies of all the White House staffers, and Kennedy's personal friends and entourage, and each one makes fascinating reading. I am not at all a conspiracy theorist, but I have to wonder who Jackie meant when she cried out in the limousine "They've killed him! They've killed Jack!" and, later, when she refused to remove her blood and brain spattered clothing for Johnson's swearing in to "Let them see what they've done." I'm not saying she knew anything, or even was right in her use of the plural pronoun. But it's interesting that her mind went there in that terrible moment. I was reading this in an office while waiting my turn, and the woman looked at it and at me and said "Where were you?" I told her, and she told me.

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some light, almost summer reading but interesting in a few respects. The cast of characters in and around "Camelot" are presented in the very first pages as a "Court". And a court they are, deferential, and obsequious, but also intelligent and bright. And for the most part, young. And these youngsters had sex, especially the President, and lots of it, and in the White House, on the Presidential Yacht, etc. These trysts and longer term relationships weave into and out of the story line consistently and surprisingly. And then there were the gays. Bill Walton and Lem Billings specifically, come up time and again as valued friends or experts, seemingly anachronistic, but in hindsight, probably well buried in the closets of the time.

One gets a more intimate and more detailed account of Jack and Jackie, with little of the manufactured narrative or harsh criticism that have taken over their stories. He was witty, intelligent, shrewd and well-read, but also indecisive, unfaithful and inexperienced. She was regal, sarcastic and a notorious clothes horse/fashion icon (and smoker!) who ultimately survived to marry again and again. As a pair, they created a magic, some of it consciously/intentionally, but much/most of it unintended -- an era of optimism, hope and enthusiasm that has yet to be matched in subsequent administrations.

[Hank Pharis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay. Not that much new if you know the Kennedy's story. Says that Joseph Kennedy lied about what happened to Rosemary. Does reveal yet more about JFK's apparent sex addiction and says that he had a venereal disease.

(Note: I'm stingy with stars. For me 2 stars means a good book. 3 = Very good; 4 = Outstanding {only about 5% of the books I read merit this}; 5 = All time favorites {one of these may come along every 400-500 books})

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars rounded to 5 for Jackie Kennedy. She's such a muse. I really like how this book is written. It might not be perfect or as political as some wanted, but this book is like a brilliant landscape painting of the White House. It nicely captured various cast of characters, including Bobby Kenendy, Lee Radziwill, LBJ, Bunny Mellons, McNamara, Sorensen, the journalists, the royals, the artists, et cetera. Jacqueline Kennedy was truly the muse in the White House.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a lot more power and a lot less grace. The two main themes of this book seemed to be the political life of JFK and his womanizing. This could have been so much more. With a word like "grace" in the title, you would expect to find more than a little about the Kennedys entertaining, however, this is just barely touched on. The first two hundred pages or so were completely boring to me, but I pressed on. This is only for the most "hardcore" of Kennedy fans.