My Travels with Mrs. Kennedy
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- $28.99
Publisher Description
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
From the authors of the #1 New York Times bestseller Mrs. Kennedy and Me comes another New York Times bestseller, which reveals never-before-told stories of Secret Service Agent Clint Hill’s travels with Jacqueline Kennedy through Europe, Asia, and South America. Featuring more than two hundred rare and never-before-published photographs.
While preparing to sell his home in Alexandria, Virginia, retired Secret Service agent Clint Hill uncovers an old steamer trunk in the garage, triggering a floodgate of memories. As he and Lisa McCubbin, his coauthor on three previous books, pry it open for the first time in fifty years, they find forgotten photos, handwritten notes, personal gifts, and treasured mementos from the trips on which Hill accompanied First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy as her Secret Service agent—trips that took them from Paris to London, through India, Pakistan, Greece, Morocco, Mexico, South America, and “three glorious weeks on the Amalfi Coast.” During these journeys, Jacqueline Kennedy became one of her husband’s—and America’s—greatest assets; in Hill’s words and the opinion of many others, “one of the best ambassadors the United States has ever had.”
As each newfound treasure sparks long-suppressed memories, Hill provides new insight into the intensely private woman he always called “Mrs. Kennedy” and who always called him “Mr. Hill.” For the first time, he reveals the depth of the relationship that developed between them as they traveled around the globe. Now ninety years old, Hill recounts the tender moments, the private laughs, the wild adventures, and the deep affection he shared with one of the world’s most beautiful and iconic women—and these memories are brought vividly to life alongside more than two hundred rare photographs, many of them previously unpublished.
In addition to the humorous stories and intimate moments, Hill reveals startling details about how traveling helped them both heal during the excruciating weeks and months following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November 1963. He also writes of the year he spent protecting Mrs. Kennedy after the assassination, a time in his life he has always been reluctant to speak about.
My Travels with Mrs. Kennedy unveils a personal side of history that has never been told before and takes the reader on a breathtaking journey, experiencing what it was like for Clint Hill to travel with Jacqueline Kennedy as the entire world was falling in love with her.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Husband-and-wife coauthors Clint and Lisa McCubbin Hill (Mrs. Kennedy and Me) deliver an immersive behind-the-scenes account of life in the Kennedy White House. Inspired by their recent rediscovery of a steamer trunk full of mementos, the authors recount how Clint Hill was assigned to be Jackie Kennedy's personal Secret Service agent after a stint with President Eisenhower. Though the reassignment initially felt like "being moved from the starting lineup to the bench," Hill soon discovered that the young, stylish, and multilingual first lady was unlike her predecessors. He describes how Jackie (an "elegant" yet "down to earth" woman with "a sense of adventure") conversed easily with heads of state on visits to India, Pakistan, Latin America, and Europe, and even negotiated with France's minister of culture for the Mona Lisa's first U.S. tour. Hill also spent holidays with the first lady, and shares reminisces and photographs of summers in Hyannis Port, weekends in Virginia, and a getaway to Ravello, Italy. On a more somber note, Hill documents the family's distress and his own lingering trauma after John F. Kennedy's assassination. Packed with rare images and fond reminiscences, this is a page-turning portrait of the Camelot era. Photos.
