Description:

As an editor at Doubleday Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis rejects a proposal for an "enchanting" illustrated book on a village built for Marie Antoinette by King Louis XVI.

JACQUELINE KENNEDY (1929-1994) Typed Letter Signed "Jacqueline Onassis," 8.5" x 11". New York, April 23, 1981. On Doubleday letterhead, signed as Associate Editor. To Ms. Abbie Gail Weiser, Los Angeles, California. Light edge wear and handling creases. Fine condition.

In full, "Your notebook on le hameau de Marie Antoinette is enchanting. You have done so much marvellous [sic] research. The trouble is that such a book would be enormously expensive to do. One would need the co-operation of Versailles, a photographer to take exciting new photographs, etc. And then Doubleday doesn't feel that there would be a large enough audience to justify the expense of such a book. As you perhaps know, beautifully illustrated books are the first casualties in this very difficult time in the publishing business, when everyone is retrenching.

"It could be a marvelous book and I hope you can make it happen at a house that would welcome it. Why don't you try Rizzoli or Harry Abrams? They do books like that much more than Doubleday does. Thank you for sending it to me and for the great pleasure I had in reading your proposal. I wish you the very best of luck."

Le Hameau de Marie Antoinette is a play-village and farm built in 1783 for Louis XVI's Queen for her amusement. Among the thatched cottages, a watermill, and a lake, she and her court acted out a fantasy of peasant life.

We can find no record of Ms. Weiser's book ever being published.

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June 21, 2016 10:30 AM EDT
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