Touched by the Sun: My Friendship with Jackie; Signed, Caroline Kennedy's Copy
[Caroline Kennedy’s Copy; Signed by Carly Simon] Simon, Carly. Touched by the Sun: My Friendship with Jackie. First Edition. 2019. Book and dust jacket are both in very good condition. Book is signed “Carly Simon” on a bookplate attached to the blank page between the flyleaf and the half-title. Laid in is a letter from Colin Dickerman, Vice President and Executive Editor of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, to Caroline Kennedy, “14 Oct 2019, Dear Caroline Kennedy, Carly wanted you to have the first copy of this. She sent you one Fed Ex from the Vineyard, but it was returned due to the storm! I know she’s writing you a note to arrive separately. My best, Colin.”
It should not be a surprise that Carly Simon worried about Caroline Kennedy’s opinion of this book, going to extraordinary lengths to circumvent an October 2019 nor’easter to ensure that Caroline would receive the first copy. Like most famous people, the Kennedys do not welcome intrusions of their privacy. After Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee published Conversations with Kennedy (a memoir of his friendship with JFK) Jacqueline Kennedy never spoke to him again. Might Carly receive the same reception from Caroline? Did she? If so, it is unjustified. In the book, Simon recalls a warm, quirky relationship between two opposites that ultimately found they had more in common than at first imagined, and along the way, had a lot of fun. With cameos by Bill Clinton, Katharine Graham, Lillian Hellman, Bill and Rose Styron, Mike Nichols, JFK, Jr., and Edna O’Brien.
“No one is more interested in famous people than other famous people.”
--Carly Simon