by Wendy Leigh
RICHARD WINCHESTER
Winchester Literistic
17 Sutton Place
New York, New York 10021
Patrice Renoir
Apartment 1
The Renaissance
1600 La Brea
Hollywood, California 90069
August 18, 2002
Dear Patty,
Opening the boxes with you on August 5 was one of the most moving moments of my entire life. I feel privileged that you have entrusted the letters to me.
You will be glad to know that they have now been authenticated by two independent experts. In short, there is no doubt whatsoever that I now have in my possession the secret correspondence between Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy. Many congratulations!
We can now take steps toward securing a lucrative publication deal. I shall, of course, keep you informed at all times.
Best regards,
Richard
BY MESSENGER
RICHARD WINCHESTER
Winchester Literistic
17 Sutton Place
New York, New York 10021
Thomas Dunne
Thomas Dunne Books
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10010
August 25, 2002
Dear Tom,
I was delighted to talk to you earlier this morning. You have Letters for twenty-four hours, exclusively. I have no doubt whatsoever as to what your answer will be.
This is a once-in-a-lifetime project. And I know that—with your instinct for melding the historical with the commercial, your fabled editorial talents, and your intense acumen for marketing—you are the right publisher for a project which is not only close to my heart but destined to make news throughout the world, and to break all bestseller list records for all time.
Awaiting your offer with anticipation.
Warm regards,
Richard
Thomas Dunne Books
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10010
Richard Winchester
Winchester Literistic
17 Sutton Place
New York, New York 10021
September 13, 2002
Dear Richard,
When you first hit me with the news that now that the deal is sealed, your client wants nothing more to do with the project, I was somewhat dismayed. However, after much reflection, I realize that her decision may well work to our advantage.
This book is not only a portrait of two icons, but also a slice of American history, of Hollywood history, replete with celebrity gossip, sexual salaciousness, and—to top that—a grand romantic saga. On another level, it is a tale which every wife who has ever worried about her husband having an affair and every mistress who has ever speculated regarding her married lover’s wife will want to read. It delves into the eternal triangle, presents a classic cat-and-mouse game between the wife and the mistress, yet at the same time is a portrait of female bonding at a time when the feminist movement was not yet born.
With so many delicious subtexts, I feel that the manuscript needs to be introduced and annotated by a major international figure whose scholarship encompasses American history, Hollywood history, cultural history, and human nature in general. Only one name springs to mind. F. R. Lichtenstein. (I think he’s an Ed Victor client.)
Let me know what you think.
Warm regards,
Tom
RICHARD WINCHESTER
Winchester Literistic
17 Sutton Place
New York, New York 10021
Thomas Dunne
Thomas Dunne Books
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10010
September 28, 2002
Dear Tom,
Brilliant idea! But try explaining to my client.… At first, of course, she had never heard of F.R., so I soft-pedaled it. Then—for someone who positioned herself as not wanting anything else to do with the project—she flew into action. I don’t know who she called or how they managed to get it together so fast, but within half an hour, she got back to me with full chapter and verse on F.R., including his latest New Yorker essay on—of all people—Jackie.
She wasn’t deterred by the five wives (not even the story of how his last mistress, Lulu von Richthofen, knifed him that Halloween in Buenos Aires) nor by his cocaine period or his Hollywood shenanigans. And, of course, she was impressed (as we knew she would be) by his Pulitzer. His artistic volte-face in the latter years (he must be 79 now?) also impressed her, his renewed scholarship, the Harvard history fellowship, etc., etc. What nearly scuppered the entire deal, though, was his New Yorker characterization of Jackie (which, as luck would have it, her source read to my client) as “a venal woman with a carnal soul.” That incensed her. And although I reminded her that out of all the journalists on the sixties beat, F.R. was unique in that he conducted interviews (for Life) with both Marilyn and Jackie, none of that cut any ice with her.
Strangely enough, Tom, now that she has released the letters, Patty isn’t the least bit protective of Marilyn’s memory, yet is virulently protective—not to say reverential—regarding Jackie’s. I’ve explained to her that—as you and I both agree—the letters don’t reflect remotely negatively on Jackie. Instead, they show her human side, her struggles, her passions, her love for Jack, and her warmth as a woman. Far from desecrating her memory, I think they consecrate it.
In any event, my client wouldn’t allow me to go ahead with F.R. unless I made what she termed as “a sacred promise” that he will not be permitted to make any direct comments on Jackie in the manuscript. I acquiesced, and mollified her further by pledging that we would do our utmost to illuminate the letters by seeking someone close to Jackie to comment on a number of them. I’ll get back to you as soon as I have co-opted a suitable candidate.
In the meantime, perhaps you could sound F.R. out?
Warm regards,
Richard
RICHARD WINCHESTER
Winchester Literistic
17 Sutton Place
New York, New York 10021
Thomas Dunne
Thomas Dunne Books
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10010
October 21, 2002
Dear Tom,
This entire project seems to be born under a lucky star (as opposed to those relatively unlucky stars … our heroines). Through an amazing series of coincidences, we have been able to obtain limited access to those pages of Jackie Kennedy’s Purple Diary, covering her correspondence with Marilyn.
The Purple Diary has hitherto been in the possession of Evangeline Auchincloss. As chance would have it, Evangeline and my first cousin Poppy Winchester roomed together at Vassar. And once I took the liberty of allowing Poppy to show Evangeline the Secret Letters, she became convinced that she owed it to history—and to Jackie’s memory—to allow Jackie’s diary comments on her correspondence with Marilyn to be published in tandem with the Secret Letters. The relevant pages will be messengered over to you forthwith.
Warm regards,
Richard
RICHARD WINCHESTER
Winchester Literistic
17 Sutton Place
New York, New York 10021
Patrice Renoir
Apartment 1
The Renaissance
1600 La Brea
Hollywood, California 90069
October 30, 2002
Dear Patty,
Just a note to let you know that The Secret Letters will be published on April 25, 2003! You are about to make history!
Warmest regards,
Richard
THE LETTERS
EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
By F. R. Lichtenstein, Director of the Yale Faculty Vanderbilt Foundation, Professor Emeritus of Modern Culture and English Literature, Downing College, Cambridge, and Freud Professor of Psychoanalysis, University of Graz, Austria
These priceless historical documents first came to
light in 1998 when they were released by former Hollywood beautician and Marilyn confidante Patrice Renoir. Shortly before Marilyn’s death, Jackie returned her letters. Soon after receiving them, Marilyn bequeathed the entire correspondence between her and Jackie to Renoir.
However, due to legal strictures, the documents cannot be reprinted. Marilyn’s letters are written in different colored pens (navy, green, red, purple, orange, silver). The pale pink notepaper is tinged with the scent of violets. The writing is large, expansive, with complex curlicues, flourishes, and many of the i’s are dotted with a large circle or a heart. The letters are in good condition, folded just once.
Jackie’s letters are written with a navy ink pen on thick cream paper. The corners are generally crumbled and it is clear the letters have been read repeatedly by Marilyn.
Marilyn tended to be a lamentable speller. Following her ear, she habitually made such slips as “definate” and “fantasize.” Proper names were her downfall, and she often transposed the e and the i. But given the public perception of her innate dumb-blondeness, her occasional spelling mistakes have been retained in the text, if only to highlight how rare they were and the fact that, despite her rudimentary education, her strength of mind and purpose spurred her to improve her literacy level. Interestingly enough (and this is most apparent in Marilyn’s last long letters), her powers of description and her level of self-knowledge are often more well honed than Jackie’s.
These letters chart the course of the friendship between Marilyn and Jackie. In the process, they chronicle the inner lives of two unique, iconoclastic sirens. Friends and enemies, mirror images, fatherless girls, hostages to history, celluloid images, female role models, fashion queens, eternal legends, each living in her own kaleidoscopic universe, unique yet similar, they are two of the most famous and revered women of their time.
Artful seductresses, mistresses of enchantment, like Cleopatra, both Marilyn’s and Jackie’s charms cloaked sharp intellects. And it is clear that both women—each a female Machiavelli—relished the intellectual challenge inherent in the cat-and-mouse game played out in the Secret Letters.
The hallmark of the letters, which range from Jackie’s sharp observations on Washington to Marilyn’s revealing Hollywood gossip, is an exchange between both women of intimacies about life, love, loss, their hopes, and their fears. In the process, they also expose the deepest recesses of their hearts. Compared with the multitude of comments made by both women to the press, these letters are doubly interesting in that they graphically reveal subtle aspects of their individual natures.
Both women were prolific correspondents. Jackie’s propensity for writing letters is well known. Her most recent biographer, Sarah Bradford, confirmed that Jackie not only relished corresponding with famous people but kept their letters for many years and, just before her death, read a selection to her close friend Nancy Tuckerman. According to Bradford, “Jackie was sitting before the fire, astrakhan thrown over her lap. On the table beside her were bunches of letters, all neatly bound with ribbons. These were the letters Jackie had received from famous people over the years. Jackie unbound the letters and read some of them to Nancy.”
Marilyn, too, was a prolific letter writer, often writing one letter with two or three different pens. According to Marilyn intimate James Haspiel, “Paula Strasberg told me that there existed personal letters written by John F. Kennedy to Marilyn, that Paula and Lee had placed ‘into a safe-deposit box, not to be opened for fifty years.’”
The fact that Jack Kennedy risked putting pen to paper to correspond with Marilyn indicates that her response was also worth receiving and that intellectually she was not dramatically inferior to Jack or, indeed, to Jackie.
For as much as Hillary Clinton might hate admitting this about Monica Lewinisky, Eleanor Roosevelt about Missy Le Hand, Queen Alexandra about Lillie Langtry, Lady Nelson about Emma Hamilton, or Jackie about Marilyn, the reality is that despite their intrinsic animosity toward each other, on a deep level, the wife and the mistress generally have far more in common than they might care to admit and could, had fate dealt them different cards, even have been true friends.
The historical value of the letters has been enhanced by the access to Jackie’s hitherto unpublished Purple Diary, which was bequeathed by her to her niece Evangeline Auchincloss.
I believe that I owe it to history to make Jackie Kennedy’s relevant Purple Diary entries available in tandem with the Secret Letters. For it is my belief that Jackie’s diary entries on Marilyn elucidate her state of mind during the correspondence, add dignity and resonance to the Secret Letters, and are thus a fitting memorial to her.
Above all, I would never have lent my name and reputation to this enterprise had I not believed that the documents truthfully reflect Marilyn’s and Jackie’s mutuality of spirit, their deep intimacy, their similarity of soul, and their unrequited passion for a remarkable man. All of which I believe serves only to add to the final legacy, the historical importance, and the rich beauty of these Secret Letters.
WESTERN UNION TELEGRAM
Bel-Air Hotel
The Office of Senator John F. Kennedy
Washington, D.C.
November 5, 1952
Dearest Jack,
Congratulations on winning the Senate Race. Since we met last year in Hollywood, I’ve been rooting for you, so I’m glad.*
Love,
Marilyn
__________________________
* “For nearly a decade, his [Kennedy’s] regular host on trips to Hollywood had been the prominent agent Charles Feldman. Feldman had represented Marilyn in the early fifties, and two witnesses suggest that Kennedy met Marilyn through him as early as 1951.” (Tony Summers, Goddess)
Marilyn kept a copy of this (rather indiscreet) greeting with all the subsequent correspondence.
MARILYN MONROE
Apartment 3
882 North Doheny Drive
Beverly Hills, California
Senator and Mrs. John F. Kennedy
1095 North Ocean Boulevard
Palm Beach, Florida
September 13, 1953
Dear Senator and Mrs. Kennedy,
I am so sad that I couldn’t accept Ambassador Kennedy’s kind invitation to attend your wedding* I was in Canada, making River of No Return.† But when I saw your beautiful wedding photographs in the newspaper this morning, they brought tears to my eyes.
Mrs. Kennedy, you look just like a movie star, only better, which of course you are.
I wish you joy, happiness, and all that you desire and hope that this little music box will remind you that here in Hollywood, Marilyn Monroe is thinking of you both with love.‡
Marilyn
__________________________
* On receipt of this letter, Jackie wrote in her diary, “Quel surprise! A wedding gift from none other than Marilyn Monroe … plus a cryptic note. Still, old Joe must know what he’s doing. … Or wants to do … As if the Swanson scenario hadn’t been sufficient. … Oh, well, les garçons always remain les garçons, don’t they? …”
In the above diary entry, Jackie is assuming that because Joe Kennedy invited Marilyn to Jack’s wedding, she and Joe were having an illicit affair. It is highly likely that Jack inveigled his father into inviting Marilyn to his wedding. As Sarah Bradford noted in America’s Queen (New York: Viking, 2000): “There was competition between Jack and his father over women: each got a thrill from sleeping where they knew the other had gone before. It was a totally amoral situation. There was something incestuous about the whole family.”
† Marilyn’s co-star in River of No Return was Robert Mitchum, a male star rippling with sex appeal. Yet according to Mitchum, he did not succumb to Marilyn’s charms. Instead, he and his cronies took pleasure in teasing her. “One day she yearningly remarked that she hadn’t seen her man Joe in some time, and Mitchum’s boisterous stand-in, Tim Wallace, supposedly suggested they take up the slack with ‘a round robin.’
‘�
�What’s that?’ Marilyn asked.
“‘You know, you and me and Mitch,’ Wallace said, leering.
“‘Ooh,’ said Marilyn, ‘that would kill me!’
“‘Well, nobody’s died from it yet,’ Wallace snickered.
“‘Ooh, I bet they have,’ Marilyn told him. ‘But in the papers they just say … the girl died from natural causes. …’” (from Lee Server’s Robert Mitchum: Baby I Don’t Care [New York: St. Martins Press, 2001])
Years later, Marilyn would say wistfully, “Mitchum is one of the most interesting, fascinating men I have ever known.”
In one of the many incidences in which Marilyn and Jackie were both attracted to the same man, Jackie also expressed an attraction to Robert Mitchum. “At one point in his career, he wanted Jackie to edit his autobiography and was surprised and flattered when the agent got back a few days later and said Mrs. Onassis would be delighted to do the book with him. Mitchum had always been her favorite movie star, she said to the startled agent, and had always reminded her very much of her own father.” (Ibid.)
‡ The music box (listed as number 763 in the catalog of Kennedy/Bouvier wedding gifts lodged at the Rhode Island Bouvier Institute) plays “Falling in Love Again,” the song from The Blue Angel.