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The President had the galleys for this book with him when he was assassinated. He was reading them on that trip to Texas. At that time, anything that had to do with Kennedy was a huge success and when Bishop's book came out, it was an enormous best-seller. Jackie didn't like it. She told me that first day at lunch that she was very sorry that we had published this book. She realized that Bishop had gotten the run of the White House from her husband; but, she said, he had proven himself a confounded nuisance. She considered him arrogant and she didn't like him.

Then he decided that he was going to do a book about the day that Kennedy was assassinated...the way he had done ones about Jesus, then Lincoln. It was to be the same hour by hour account. This was before the Manchester book came along. Jackie Kennedy didn't want Bishop to do this book, and she called me up and requested, “Please say you won't publish this book” and started to cry over the telephone. Imagine having to hear Jackie Kennedy crying! I faltered, “I can't stop him from writing this book. We have a contract with him. I can refuse to publish it, true, but you know that the day I refuse to publish it, fifty other publishers will jump for it. This is a sure best-seller”--or it looked like it then. She said, “I'm asking you as a personal favor not to publish this book.” I told her, “The person you must talk to is Jim Bishop himself. I'm sure that if you ask him personally he won't do it.” Well, I gave her Jim Bishop's private phone number down in Florida and Jackie called him up. Bishop