The Presidency: Battle of the Book

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Some 45 hours after issuing her statement, Jackie lowered the boom. She asked New York State's Supreme Court to prevent Manchester, Look and Harper from publishing the book on the ground of breach of contract. "I have never seen Manchester's manuscript," she said. "I have not approved it, nor have I authorized anyone else to approve it for me." Publication at this time, she said, would not only be "a violation of my rights, but will cause me great and irreparable injury. It will result in precisely the sensationalism and commercialism which we—Robert F. Kennedy and I—sought so strenuously to avoid. The threatened publication is in total disregard of my rights and, if it goes forward, will utterly destroy them."

She requested five remedies: 1) that Manchester, Look and Harper be barred from publishing the manuscript until she okayed the text and publication date; 2) that they be permanently enjoined from using any of the letters from herself and Caroline that might be in Manchester's possession; 3) that they be prohibited from using material from Manchester's taped interview with her and return all the tapes; 4) that Look be prevented from using her name in advertisements, as it has been doing; and 5) that she be granted punitive and compensatory damages and court costs.

No Joy. At first silent, Manchester finally spoke up after Jackie filed her suit. In recent months, he had been "hiding—a sort of recluse," according to an acquaintance in Middletown. Just before leaving for England last month, he told a WCBS-TV interviewer that "all sorts of things have happened to the book. I certainly cannot feel any sense of joy or even of genuine achievement." Now confronted with a lawsuit, he denied that he had jumped the gun on the publication date or that "I have broken faith with Mrs. Kennedy." Though he said that he had made substantial changes at the request of the Kennedys, he insisted that "in the last analysis, this is my book. Neither Mrs. Kennedy nor any member of the Kennedy family nor anyone else is in any way responsible for my research or the content of my work. It is my responsibility."

Whether the court upholds or rejects Jacqueline Kennedy's complaint, Look is in a bind. Its Jan. 24 issue was on the presses at R. R. Donnelley's Chicago plant last week, but the editors were not saying how many copies had been run off or if they could change the contents. The Harper book also faces an uncertain fate. To some observers, it would seem that enough Kennedy representatives had pondered and pored over the manuscript to constitute a committee of approval, and that the Kennedys had adequate opportunity to make all the changes they wanted. But the changes failed to satisfy the Kennedy most intimately involved—Jacqueline—and she is a woman who has at her disposal a huge reservoir of public sympathy and admiration. Moreover, Jackie is so obviously and sincerely agitated over the whole affair that, after a meeting with attorneys at week's end during which parts of the book were read, she emerged, with Dick Goodwin, on the verge of tears.