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.”
The laid-in letter accompanying this copy reveals how much Carly Simon cared what Caroline Kennedy thought of the book. Whether those feelings were entirely reciprocal is another question. Simon was sufficiently concerned to send Caroline an advance copy from Martha’s Vineyard, only to have it returned because of a nor’easter. A second copy, this one, quickly followed through her publisher. The concern was understandable. The Kennedys have not always looked kindly on books that pull back the curtain on their private lives. Yet Simon’s memoir is less an exposé than a love letter to an unlikely friendship, revealing the former First Lady at her most human, and in the best sense of that expression. The Jackie who emerges is kind, curious, down-to-earth, and acutely aware of the limitations of fame. Along the way appear Bill Clinton, Katharine Graham, Lillian Hellman, Bill and Rose Styron, Mike Nichols, John F. Kennedy, Jr., and Edna O’Brien, but the emotional center of the book remains Simon’s affection for Jackie and her gratitude for a friendship she clearly treasured.
“No one is more interested in famous people than other famous people.”
--Carly Simon