DC Author Writes Ultimate Jackie O Biography for the Viral Media Generation
Unlike any other biography of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis — and with purposeful cover art that additionally sets it apart from any other biographies on the bookshelves right now — “Finding Jackie: A Life Reinvented” by DC-based author Oline Eaton is the study of a life lived behind ‘candid portraiture’ [Ron Galella] and newspaper column inches.
Despite the author’s young age at the time of Jackie’s death, hers is a story that just wouldn’t let Eaton go.
“I wrote in my diary, ‘I can’t stop thinking about Jackie Kennedy and Richard Nixon,'” the author divulged at a recent appearance at Lost City Books in Adams Morgan.
Not only was Jackie’s path intriguing for the young woman looking to create her own sophisticated life filled with education, career, and travel, but Eaton was fascinated with the tension between living with one’s own story versus living with stories told about you.
“Most other popular biographies are like domestic drama, not critically engaged with… the media stuff,” Eaton said. “I was always interested in the … way the media communicated her story.”
“It’s impossible to exaggerate how much she was in the newspaper; she was viral all of the time,” Eaton explained.
Yet, despite being part of the fabric of everyday living for many Americans, Eaton feels Jackie’s actual essence is often misunderstood. And many important life decisions for her — confounding for so many around the world — were dismissed in favor of the narrative that others wanted from her.
“When she died, it was like a sentence, ‘And then she married Onassis,'” Eaton said. “In focusing on this [Onassis] period, I feel like the book does a good job of giving us a much better sense of what was thought to be occurring during this period of her life — which was thought to be erased.”
Heavily sourced, masterfully told — and even fastidiously illustrated — Eaton’s “Finding Jackie” is rooted in modern culture, but told for an audience that craves more than surface-level celebrity. It’s a must-read for those interested in many topics — from First Ladies to media history, consumer economic trends, and, of course, Jackie O herself.