Description:

Kennedy Jacqueline

6pp illustrated ALS inscribed overall on ship stationery with "Cunard Line, R.M.S. 'Queen Elizabeth'" letterhead and signed by then college student Jacqueline Bouvier as "Jackie, XO XO" at center of sixth page. Accompanied by original transmittal envelope bearing brown George VI one shilling stamp and postmarked from Southampton, England on June 13, 1951, addressed in Jackie's hand to her mother, "Mrs. Hugh D. Auchincloss, Hammersmith Farm, Newport, Rhode Island, USA." In near fine condition, the letter with expected paper folds, and the envelope letter-opened and missing its top. Each page measures 5.25" x 6.75". From the collection of Elisa Sullivan (1935-2012), Jackie's mother Janet Bouvier Auchincloss's personal caregiver and companion.

 

All excerpts are untouched, with Jackie's unique punctuation and grammar.

 

In the summer of 1951, the Bouvier girls traveled to Europe. 22-year-old Jackie Kennedy and her younger sister Lee toured France, England, Spain, and Italy in an adventure that they would later recall in their 1974 memoir "One Special Summer". The sisters recorded their trip in a series of letters, journal entries, and illustrations intended to entertain their mother, Janet Bouvier Auchincloss, who was financing the trip. Jackie gushed at the end of her letter: "How could you be so wonderful Mummy to give us this whole dream trip - I wish you could be with us every second so you could see what a thrill we are getting out of it --"

 

This delightful letter records some of Jackie and Lee's girlish exploits, like sneaking into First Class ("getting stuck on the gate in airtight dresses"), flirting with handsome men including a "heavenly banker", and the very real threat of having to sleep overnight in a women's restroom at Waterloo Station. But the Bouvier girls did not backpack across Europe; their "roughing it" would have consisted of changing into "our evening dresses in the back of the car" sent to pick them up.

 

Jackie wrote: "Its quite exciting to think things are starting off with such a bang - though I'm glad you wont get this till its all over as such frenzy would make your blood curdle."

 

Jackie and Lee befriended fellow Cunard liner "Queen Elizabeth" passengers and crew, all of whom could have starred in the Van Johnson or Bette Davis movies they watched on board. Such a character was certainly the Persian bachelor Iganovich Ilwitz, "a dark brown thing … with no forehead beady eyes + banana noses" , that held Lee hostage on the dance floor. A hilarious ink illustration of the two sisters and their escorts appears on the top of page 4. Jackie and her "attractive Englishman" are depicted waltzing past a furious, glaring Lee and a Groucho Marx-like Ilwitz. "He grabbed hold of Lee + they clumped off … you should have seen her [Lee's] face everytime we passed them …" 

 

This spectacular letter may have been presented to Elisa Sullivan as a gift. Elisa Sullivan started working as a caregiver for Janet in 1979, after the former First Lady's mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. After Jackie's death in 1994, Elisa worked for Jackie's half-brother Hugh "Yusha" Auchincloss III as a book-keeper, house-keeper, and chef.

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