Battle of the Book

Friday, Dec. 23, 1966

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"I have to try. We might lose this, but I have to try. I can't lose all that I've tried to protect for these years. We have to do what is necessary. We have to sue."

With those anguished words to close friends last week, Jacqueline Kennedy set in motion the biggest brouhaha over a book that the nation has ever known. The book was no ordinary one: it was William Manchester's The Death of a President, which has been awaited as the authoritative account of the assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas. The late President's family carefully hand-picked both the author and the publisher—neither of whom had sought the assignment—and offered them exclusive access to information and key figures, hoping thereby to avoid "distortion and sensationalism" and produce a sober, low-key retelling of the events of Nov. 22, 1963. The book was to be a rara avis: a history that would be independent but would still carry the authorization of the Kennedys and require their approval before publication.

Exhaustive Detail. Long the subject of speculation across the U.S., the 1,200-page manuscript of the book has proved to be something of a shock to just about everyone. Re-creating the events on and after the day of the assassination in exhaustive detail and in sometimes mawkish language, it describes Jackie Kennedy's every thought and emotion after her husband's death with such fidelity that the Kennedys—who have not read it but are familiar with its contents—feel that it contains things far too personal to print. "That's all she has left—her personal life," says a member of the family. "She wants to protect that."

To protect it, Jackie Kennedy's attorneys requested and received a "show-cause" order from the New York State Supreme Court requiring Manchester, Harper & Row, which was to publish the book April 7, and Look magazine, which was to begin serializing it Jan. 10, to explain in a hearing next week why they should not be barred from bringing out the book. The charge: Manchester and his publishers had violated a "Memorandum of Understanding" and gone ahead with the book without an O.K. from the Kennedy family.

The dispute has simmered behind the scenes for months as rumors buzzed in Washington and New York about the book's incendiary contents, and about the problems between the Kennedys and the author and publisher. But the book has done far more than merely upset the Kennedys. It has set many New Frontiersmen against one another, caused the author to become ill and brought turmoil to the publishing world, leaving half a dozen publishers in Europe and the U.S. holding a manuscript that they are not sure they will be able to print. Its influence has also reached into the White House, where its prejudiced and one-dimensional treatment of Lyndon Johnson has created apprehension and resentment.