Steinbeck and Covici: The Story of a Friendship Book

In giving Greg Lawrence's Jackie as Editor 3 stars I wish to emphasize that I did not dislike the book. I may be a victim of myown anticipation but I feel that author Lawrence left me with several problems. He is not a bad writer, just not a great one. He was or considered himself a friend of Mrs. Onassis but I do not think he wanted to burn too many of his bridges in the world of publishing. The result is a book where the story carries more of the load than the story teller.

The initial problem lays in the fact that a very rich larger than life person was given a starting job under terms and conditions not available to someone who would have to earn that same spot and pay after years of lessor assignments. It is very credible that Mrs. Onassis was above average personable and had enormous tact and a way with people. It is not credible that no one resented her special treatment.
From the point of view of her employers she was uniquely valuable because of the people she knew and the doors that were open to her. That she would prover herself a capable, money making editor could, eventually end some of the rumors, but it is unrealistic to tell us that she won over everyone and did so quickly.
The Standard Jackie Kennedy Onassis narrative is that she was the daughter of a rich philandering father, then the gracious, if light weight ornamental first lady in modern America's most ornamental presidency. A position she fulfilled by being the symbol of the strong new widow leading by example America's mourning for the loss of her husband and our president. Her public mythical life ended when she sullied herself by marring a much older philandering rich Greek who died just before their being divorced such that she is last heard of in an ugly law suit with the rich man's natural daughter.

Jackie as Editor documents that the real last act of her life was as an intelligent, perspicacious hard working book editor. Her achievements in this role all the more to her credit because she learned to parlay her position as a fabled member of America's elite into book deals and publishing budgets that a lessor editor could not have accomplished.
She was a specialist in quality heavily illustrated books at a time when the industry was avoiding the costs associated with museum quality art books. Instead the industry increasing interested in the obvious sales a given project was likely to produce.

Far from being adverse to money making books she did promote authors and projects that made money. Among those I personally enjoyed was her previously unknown, to me, role in bringing the philosopher Joseph Campbell to a wider readership as well as one of the first post wall biographies of Joseph Stalin by Russian author Edvard Radzinshy. . More overtly commercial titles include a photo biography of Fred Astaire, The Cartoon History of the Universe, Moonwalk by Michael Jackson and the Ballad of John and Yoko.

Because of the depth and breath of Jackie's reading and interests she was able to promote authors from Egypt, Turkey, France and India. Her total list runs to 95 titles including many on the arts, children's books, history and philosophy.

Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis may have been ornamental. But she was also intelligent, hardworking and capable of promoting books from authors and better treatment of those authors under an increasing hot preference for short cuts and high profit.

To Lawrence's credit he makes clear the many ways a good editor can not only provide line for line editing, something Jackie avoided or took on in ways most editors could not have but also argued for high quality paper, better introductory material even named photographers for illustrations and book jackets. Because Jackie could take educated as well as passionate interest in many of her projects we get a lot of information about how an editor can handle authors and direct the amount of pages and the speed of their production. All typical of many another editor and increasing missing the 21st century world of less influential and commercially subjugated publishing houses.
One has to wonder what Lawrence would make of the near complete take-over of editing by disinterested and decidedly not passionate corporations. Not to mention the vast increase in the number of self-published e books that may never get near a trained line editor never mind a budget for a better publicity campaign.

There are, therefore good things to Jackie as Editor. Behinds the scenes lesson in what good editors can do. For me the best of the book is the story behind titles I have already read and a new list of titles to read next.

Since reading this book have read one of Russian Fairy tales, best for its illustrations and I have another from the Tiffany Jewelry illustrated books to gift to my wife. I will be adding to my shelf of books with Jackie as Editor.