Favourite Things: Jackie Kennedy

I am a big Jackie Kennedy fan. I began reading about her in high school and I slowly began building a collection of Jackie biographies in university. Here's a look at the collection today:


To date there's about 26 books in my collection and I bought almost all of them at used book stores. I definitely plan to add lots more over the years. There doesn't seem to be any shortage of Jackie books out there. I did draw the line at buying a copy of her will though. I found one for sale at the antique market, but decided that was a bit too weird for me (although, if it had had pictures there's a chance I would have changed my mind!).

Why the Jackie fascination? I'm certainly not alone in my interest in Jackie and I actually sometimes wish I was so fascinated with someone a bit more offbeat like Adrienne Clarkson (former Canadian Governor General), Catherine de Medici, or even Catherine the Great (although I do have a thing for the Romanov Grand Duchesses!).

Here's a few reasons why Jackie holds such a fascination for me:

1) She was incredibly well educated and smart. This is really the number one reason for me. Reading biographies about Jackie really illustrates how much she loved to learn and how much she made this a priority in her life.
2) She loved to read. I can definitely relate to this.
3) She was by all accounts an excellent parent.
4) She became an book editor at a stage in her life when she didn't need to work.
5) She loved art, ballet, the theatre, and opera
6) She was a deeply private person who never sought out publicity.

And yes, she had nice clothes, but I don't know that that's one of the reasons I admire her! Still, since this is a wedding blog I thought I'd post a couple pictures of her wedding dress. Interesting enough Jackie actually didn't like her wedding dress and wanted something more simple. I still think it's gorgeous, but I've always been curious about what she would have picked if it had been up to her.


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What public figure do you find inspiring? Do any of you have a book collection? I'd love to hear about them.

P.S. In case you're all dying to go out and read a Jackie book, I'd recommend Donald Spoto's Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: A Life. It's so well written and definitely one of my all time favourites (obviously, I could never pick an actual favourite!).