The Death of a President
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''The Death of a President: November 20–November 25, 1963'' is historian
William Manchester William Raymond Manchester (April 1, 1922 – June 1, 2004) was an American author, biographer, and historian. He was the author of 18 books which have been translated into over 20 languages. He was awarded the National Humanities Medal and the ...
's 1967 account of the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy. The book gained public attention before it was published when Kennedy's widow
Jacqueline Jacqueline may refer to: People * Jacqueline (given name), including a list of people with the name * Jacqueline Moore (born 1964), ring name "Jacqueline", American professional wrestler Arts and entertainment * ''Jacqueline'' (1923 film), ...
, who had initially asked Manchester to write the book, demanded that the author make changes in the manuscript.


Description

The book is dedicated ''"For all in whose hearts he still lives -- a watchman of honour who never sleeps"''."The Death of a President November 1963", William Manchester, 1967 The book chronicles several days in late November of 1963, from a small reception the Kennedys hosted in the
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...
on Wednesday, November 20, the evening before the visit to
Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
, through the flight to
Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
, the motorcade, the assassination, the hospital, the airplane journey back to
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, and the funeral on Monday, November 25. The tension between the Kennedy and
Johnson Johnson is a surname of Anglo-Norman origin meaning "Son of John". It is the second most common in the United States and 154th most common in the world. As a common family name in Scotland, Johnson is occasionally a variation of ''Johnston'', a ...
factions, the worldwide reaction, and Lee Harvey Oswald's televised murder by
Jack Ruby Jack Leon Ruby (born Jacob Leon Rubenstein; April 25, 1911January 3, 1967) was an American nightclub owner and alleged associate of the Chicago Outfit who murdered Lee Harvey Oswald on November 24, 1963, two days after Oswald was accused of th ...
are all discussed in painstaking detail.


Background


Genesis

During early 1964, Jacqueline Kennedy commissioned Manchester to produce an account of the assassination. She and the Kennedy family wanted a definitive telling of the events to preempt other books, including
Jim Bishop James Alonzo Bishop (November 21, 1907 – July 26, 1987) was an American journalist and author who wrote the bestselling book ''The Day Lincoln was Shot''. Early life Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, he dropped out of school after eighth grad ...
's forthcoming ''The Day Kennedy Was Shot''.Kashner, Sam.
A Clash of Camelots
''Vanity Fair'', October 2009.
Kennedy was familiar with Manchester's work through ''Portrait of a President: John F. Kennedy in Profile'', his account of the president's first year and a half as President. Manchester had met and grown to admire John Kennedy when both were recovering from war wounds in Boston. The agreement stipulated that Jacqueline Kennedy and the president's brother,
Robert F. Kennedy Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925June 6, 1968), also known by his initials RFK and by the nickname Bobby, was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 64th United States Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, a ...
, then
Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...
, would approve the manuscript. As part of the agreement, Manchester was to receive an advance of $36,000 but only against the income from the first printing. All other earnings would go the
John F. Kennedy Library The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum is the presidential library and museum of John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917–1963), the 35th president of the United States (1961–1963). It is located on Columbia Point in the Dorchester neighb ...
. Kennedy promised Manchester exclusive interviews with members of the family, and sat for 10 hours of interviews with him. Manchester interviewed 1,000 people for the book, including Robert F. Kennedy; only
Marina Oswald Marina Nikolayevna Oswald Porter ( Prusakova; russian: Марина Николаевна Прусакова; born July 17, 1941) is the Russian-American widow of Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of US President John F. Kennedy. Early life Porte ...
refused. Working 100 hours a week for two years to meet an accelerated 1967 publishing deadline, the stress of producing the book sent Manchester to a hospital due to
nervous exhaustion Neurasthenia (from the Ancient Greek νεῦρον ''neuron'' "nerve" and ἀσθενής ''asthenés'' "weak") is a term that was first used at least as early as 1829 for a mechanical weakness of the nerves and became a major diagnosis in North A ...
for more than two months, where he completed a manuscript of 1,201 pages and 380,000 words. Manchester gave the manuscript to his editor at Harper & Row, Evan Thomas, and to the Kennedy family for review during March 1966. He received an offer of $665,000 from ''
Look To look is to use sight to perceive an object. Look or The Look may refer to: Businesses and products * Look (modeling agency), an Israeli modeling agency * ''Look'' (American magazine), a defunct general-interest magazine * ''Look'' (UK ma ...
'' magazine for serial rights; his agent had obtained an agreement that payments for a serial would go to the author.


Controversy

Both Jacqueline and Robert F. Kennedy had refused to read the manuscript, delegating the review to former Kennedy administration members
John Seigenthaler John Lawrence Seigenthaler ( ; July 27, 1927 – July 11, 2014) was an American journalist, writer, and political figure. He was known as a prominent defender of First Amendment rights. Seigenthaler joined the Nashville newspaper ''The ...
,
Ed Guthman Edwin O. Guthman (August 11, 1919 – August 31, 2008) was an American journalist and university professor. While at the ''Seattle Times'', he won the paper's first Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 1950. Guthman was third on Richard Nixon ...
, and
Richard N. Goodwin Richard Naradof Goodwin (December 7, 1931 – May 20, 2018) was an American writer and presidential advisor. He was an aide and speechwriter to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, and to Senator Robert F. Kennedy. He was married to ...
. They believed that passages in the book "unflattering" to Johnson might damage Robert Kennedy's political plans for 1968, and requested changes. Pam Turnure, Jacqueline Kennedy's secretary, also read the manuscript; alarmed by many "personal revelations" from Jacqueline's interviews with Manchester, such as the fact that she smoked cigarettes (something Jacqueline Kennedy had successfully hidden in the White House), she also provided lists of changes. Additionally, Jacqueline Kennedy believed that the proceeds from the ''Look'' offer should go to the Kennedy Library. She claimed that her interviews with Manchester had been intended for the library, threatened to block publication of the book unless the changes were made, unsuccessfully offered ''Look'' $1 million to cancel the serialization, and during late 1966 filed a lawsuit asking the court to issue an injunction to stop the book's publication. Newspaper articles about her decision speculated on the contents of the book. Through an out-of-court settlement during January 1967, Manchester agreed to delete 1,600 words from the serialization and seven out of 654 pages from the published book. Although headlines noted Jacqueline Kennedy as the victor, Manchester claimed that the deletions were "harmless", and retained the serialization fee.


Aftermath

Harper & Row published ''The Death of a President'' during the spring of 1967 to good reviews. It sold more than one million copies by summer and was later given the Dag Hammarskjold International Literary Prize. By 1970 the book had earned $1 million in royalties for the Kennedy Library. During 1988, the book was reprinted and Manchester wrote a new foreword. People had wondered whether he would update and modify his original work. Manchester wrote that, in his opinion, there were not any new developments. The Kennedy family retains control of materials related to ''Death''. Jacqueline Kennedy's interview tapes with the author are sealed at the Kennedy Library until 2067. Manchester's original manuscript is held at
Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Epis ...
with "extremely restricted use" and, according to his son John Manchester, the Kennedy family allowed the book to go out of print.


Reprints

The book was reprinted during 1988, and reissued by Back Bay Books, an imprint of
Little, Brown, and Company Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emily ...
, during October 2013.
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
.
Controversial JFK book to be reissued in October
''Yahoo! Finance'', September 17, 2013.


See also

*'' The Parts Left Out of the Kennedy Book''
hoax A hoax is a widely publicized falsehood so fashioned as to invite reflexive, unthinking acceptance by the greatest number of people of the most varied social identities and of the highest possible social pretensions to gull its victims into pu ...
by
Paul Krassner Paul Krassner (April 9, 1932 – July 21, 2019) was an American author, journalist, and comedian. He was the founder, editor, and a frequent contributor to the freethought magazine ''The Realist'', first published in 1958. Krassner became a key ...


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Death Of A President 1967 non-fiction books Non-fiction books about the assassination of John F. Kennedy Harper & Row books American non-fiction books