Description:

Kennedy Jacqueline

Jacqueline Bouvier Promises she is not a "bobby soxer gone wild" her French Junior Year Abroad; Instead, she Attends Communist Rallies or Drinks Wine in Cafes when Soft Drinks are not Available!

 

5pp ALS inscribed overall and signed by future First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy (1929-1994) as "Jackie" at the center of the last page. The first portion was written in black felt tip pen, and the remainder in blue fountain pen, on delicate sheaves of transparent onionskin paper. In very good to near fine condition, with expected paper folds and several minor closed tears along folds. Each page measures 6.125" x 9.875". Accompanied by an Air Mail envelope bearing 3 cancelled foreign stamps and postmarked from Grenoble, France on September 28, 1949; letter-opened and partially torn at top. From the collection of Elisa Sullivan (1935-2012), Jackie's mother Janet Bouvier Auchincloss's personal caregiver and companion.

 

20-year-old Vassar College student Jacqueline Bouvier embarked on an European adventure in the late summer of 1949. She had enrolled in Smith College's prestigious Junior Year Abroad program in Grenoble and Paris. Jackie had a keen interest in French language, literature, and culture. Yet she also wanted to use her European experience to develop her personality, explore the world, and possibly find a husband.

 

Jackie's 5pp letter is addressed to her mother, "Mrs Hugh D Auchincloss / 'Merrywood' / McLean / Virginia / U.S.A." Its main objective was to reassure her mother Janet that, contrary to reports or unfounded fears, she was not misbehaving abroad. While she had been active socially, Jackie promised that she dressed modestly, acted demurely, and behaved the same way in France as she did in the United States. With original spelling and punctuation.

 

"Dearest Mum--

 

I loved your letter but I do want to assuage your fears about how I'm acting over here - I really don't think any of us - Merv or Judith [Jackie's roommates] have behaved like bobby soxers gone wild - I really do feel that we have a position to uphold as Americans + I havent done one thing that I am ashamed of - We always dress very well - a skirt and sweater or skirt and blouse - If we sit in sidewalk cafes we behave quietly + I usually have a glace [ice cream] - Every single boy I've been out with I wouldnt be ashamed to bring to Newport + have you + my friends meet.

 

When they ask you out they come + call for/you + they wear a coat + a tie. So Maurice may say to me that there is no word for a ladies man in French because its so natural - but he says it to be funny as he knows thats what Americans think all Frenchmen are like. I know there are slimy types here - but if they ask you out you just say no - the way I would no more go out with Huntington Hartford or a lecherous tennis player in America…

 

I have been to one Communist Rally - + as I know they say the same things at every/one I've no desire to go to any more. But I see nothing wrong with going to that one - as with the world in such a mess about all that today - I'd like to find out just what they are drumming into the French people…

 

If we go out to an idyllic little restaurant in the country + have a bottle of wine - because they dont have Coca Cola here - it doesnt go very far between 8 people - + if I went there with you + Unk [step-father Hugh D. Auchincloss (1897-1976)] I'm sure we'd have the same thing - + I assure you I wouldnt drink too much - even if it was available.

 

It may please you to know that 2 French boys have told Merv + I that they thought we were among the nicest Americans they'd met. He said we were adaptable in that we didnt put on airs about coming from a richer country + throw dollars around - + we were friendly + willing to meet new people + learn from them - but that we weren't conspicuous or noisy like some of the Smith girls - jazzy Americans out for 'a hell of a good time' in France - That sounds very pious but you seem so worried that I thought you might like to hear it. I promise that I'm not thinking of making this year a terrific spree - and revelling in my independence away from where you can lecture me…I do think we 3 [Jackie and her roommates] are among the most conservative.

 

About going out with French boys alone - I will do whatever Claude de Renty does in Paris…Any boy I do go out with I will introduce to the de Renty's + I'll be in at a reasonable hour…But please Mummy I just want to show you that you neednt worry all winter about my disgracing you over here - I give you my solemn word I will never do anything that I think you wouldnt approve of…"

 

Jackie studied literature, history, political science, and art history at the Sorbonne, the University of Grenoble, the American Students' Center at Reid Hall, and several other French institutions. In Paris, she boarded at the home of Countess Germaine de Renty at 78, Avenue Mozart, located on the Right Bank in the 16th Arrondissement not far from the Eiffel Tower, Marmottan Monet Museum, and the Bois de Boulogne. Jackie's lodgings were less than ideal; she and 2 other students stayed with the widowed Countess, her 2 daughters, and 1 grandson in a drafty apartment with one bathroom, no central heating, and little hot water. Jackie focused instead on her bipolar social schedule. She regularly indulged in her bohemian side, going to jazz clubs, cafes, and political meetings; but also fulfilled her conventional obligations, attending luncheons at the Ritz, dating a diplomat's son, and horseback riding in the Bois de Boulogne.

 

The letter thus represents the fusion of Jackie's two lives; her old American one and her new French one. Despite expectation, Jackie's old American life was not provincial. She was actually a successful debutante granted access to elite social circles at home and abroad. In the letter, she mentioned George Huntington Hartford (1911-2008), the heir to the A & P Supermarket chain, as "Huntington Hartford." This was the type of person in Jackie's American scene, she having probably met him at one of Hartford's homes in Manhattan or Newport.

 

Jackie's new French life entailed resuscitating the international reputation of Americans. She was extremely sensitive to prevalent cultural assumptions and tried on a person-to-person basis to disprove the stereotypes that Americans were superficial, materialistic, and unintellectual.

 

In the letter, Jackie mentions Claude de Renty (born 1929), who would become her life-long friend. Claude was the youngest daughter of Jackie's landlady/house mother Germaine de Renty (1899-1994), and was almost exactly Jackie's age. Germaine and her husband Robert had been French resistants. She had been deported to Ravensbruck, while he died incarcerated in Ellrich in 1944.

 

Jackie's mother Janet had married stockbroker Hugh D. Auchincloss in 1942. They primarily resided at Hammersmith Farm in Newport, Rhode Island but also had a home in Virginia. Elisa Sullivan had started working as a caregiver for Jackie's mother in 1979, after Janet was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. After Jackie's death in 1994, Elisa worked for Jackie's half-brother Hugh "Yusha" Auchincloss III (1927-2015) as a book-keeper, house-keeper, and chef at Hammersmith Farm.

 

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