Description:

Kennedy Jacqueline



Jackie Kennedy Early Illustrated Letter with Additional Horse Drawing and Vintage Photo

 

4pp ALS inscribed overall and signed by a teenaged Jacqueline Lee Bouvier (1929-1994) as "Love / Jackie XXX" at the top of the fourth page, along with an original pencil horse drawing and a black and white vintage photograph of Jackie playing baseball. The letter, addressed to Jackie's childhood best friend Rosamund Lee, features three hand-drawn cartoons, including two comical self-portraits. The letter was written at Merrywood in McLean, Virginia sometime during the spring of 1943.

 

1. The letter is scrawled in a messy, girlish script on cream bifold note paper, the first page with "H.D.A." embossed letterhead (the initials of Jackie's new stepfather, Hugh D. Auchincloss (1897-1976). With isolated areas of smeared fingerprints or minor water run not affecting legibility. Expected paper folds, else near fine, 5.375" x 6.75".

 

2. The drawing entitled "My hunter" depicts a saddled horse standing in a stable in front of a feed trough. On a torn fragment of cream, blue-lined paper. Inscribed verso: "How do you like it?" 3.5" x 3".

 

3. The semi-glossy black and white snapshot depicts Jackie at bat in front of a rumpled coat marking "home." Three unidentified girls are in the background, including one in mid-cartwheel. Expected wear including a few extra wrinkles. Minor mounting traces verso, else very good to near fine. 5.75" x 3.75".

 

Jackie's correspondent was Rosamund Lee, a Long Island girl of similar age with extended family connections. Jackie's stepfather Hugh D. Auchincloss's cousin Charles C. Auchincloss was Rosie's maternal grandfather; thus Hugh was Rosie's first cousin twice removed. (Rosamund was the daughter of Rosamund Plowden-Wardlow and James Burton Lee, Jr., who married in 1929.) This branch of the wealthy Auchincloss family summered at "Builtover," their estate in Roslyn, Long Island, approximately 70 miles to the east of Jackie's birthplace, Southampton, Long Island.

 

Jackie's rambling and inquisitive letter is filled with silliness, affection, and gossip reserved only for her "Dear Rosie" and "dear sweet gurgling Rosie." At this juncture, the future First Lady resembled the typical adolescent. Her tone careened from adoring to bossy, and from hyperbolic to capricious. To emphasize points, Jackie used descriptors like "delicious" and "luscious." Like all teenager girls, she was apparently obsessed with friendship and romantic love, inquiring after her friend's crush, and showing her vulnerable side by asking if Rosie still considered her a best friend.

 

Jackie's satirical drawings include, on the inner page, a double self-portrait of her bobbed hair captioned "Then" and "Now"; and two sketches on the last page, one showing a secret hand shake sealed by "our blood," and the second depicting Jackie as a toddler chasing Rosie as a crawling baby.

 

In part, with unchanged spelling and grammar. Paragraph breaks have been added for ease of reading.

 

"Dear Rosie

 

You have to write me lots and lots now because we really should I hope this gets to you I'll possibly send it to Eddie's house Eddie likes Laura. Did you know that? Poor boy.

 

Maybe some weekend I can have you down here in Virginia. Its terribly wonderful here + there's a delicious horse named Chicdie [?] who you could ride. I've probably told you about him.

 

How's Carlos Curtis Cushing or whatever his name is?

 

Listen dear sweet gurgling Rosie where are you going this summer. We are going to Uncle Hugh's house in Newport [Hammersmith Farm] + he has a chicken farm up there + you could see Yusha [Jackie's new stepbrother, Hugh "Yusha" Auchincloss III (1927-2015)] + you will probably marry him. He is terribly nice.

 

How are Susie + Tony + Mary-Jo. She is so cute.

 

Remember the time we played baseball + my shorts got all ripped - Golly!

 

Is your hair still the same. It was awfully pretty at Xmas Mine isn't. It's in a bob like it was a couple of winters ago. Wasn't it horrible in N.Y.?

 

I miss you terribly. I am still I mean you are still my best friend + I hope I am yours. Write me soon + every other day…Goodbye luscious blood brother till death us do part.

 

Love

 

Jackie XXX

 

This is our sign + our password (I don't know what for. I love making club things don't you) is Lee Bouspinacherina - that's a horrible crazy one.

 

I love you

 

Goodbye."

 

The letter paints an effervescent portrait of the teenaged Jackie. It also underscores Jackie's enchantment with her new stepfather Hugh D. Auchincloss, a wealthy New York stockbroker, and his estates. Merrywood, the 23,000-square-foot Georgian style mansion belonging to Jackie's stepfather, overlooked the Potomac River, and Hammersmith Farm located outside of Newport, Rhode Island would be the site of Jackie's wedding reception some ten years later. Jackie's mother Janet Lee Bouvier (1907-1989) had married Hugh D. Auchincloss just a year earlier, in June 1942.

 

Jackie loved horses and was an accomplished horsewoman, like her prizewinning mother, having already won several national championships by age 12. She recalled her family's horses fondly as both competitors and adored pets.



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