LETTER: ALS to Susan Norton.
The Earliest Extant Autograph Letter
Written From Miss Porter’s Infirmary
Kennedy, Jacqueline Bouvier (later Onassis). Autograph letter signed, “Jackie,” to Susan Norton, undated but circa 1944); one leaf of lined notebook paper, text covering one side; folded; hand-addressed to the recipient, “Susan Norton/Infirmary”; clean and fresh. Housed in a specially built quarter-morocco slipcase.
To date, the earliest autograph letter by Kennedy to be recorded; to Susan Norton, a friend at Miss Porter’s School. The letter reads in full:
Dear Sue,
I nearly died when I came home at 1:00 & found your note—It’s so lonely without you. Did you get your mail? I brought it to you about 2:15. Tucky and I took Donny out this afternoon with the garbage can & it kept getting filled up with snow so it weighed about 50 lbs but she pulled it so sweetly & didn’t make a bit of fuss. I'm still searching for Mr. McKinney! The man at the diary [sic] says to ask Mr. J for the sled—Eeeck! Edie got a letter from Fred & she came screaming up the stairs saying “It was the CUTEST thing” just so I'd tell you, of course. Shall I say anything to her about the dinner? I think you're right to write the letters now because I really don’t think it’s too soon—I'll mail Doug’s as soon as I copy it—Bell!
Lots of Love
Jackie
I really do miss you—I feel so left out on the 3rd floor—who’s your roommate—I hope you get this tonite.
Across the top, as a sort of postscript, Jackie has hastily written: “My skis came—Hep Hep They're the queerest things you ever saw!”
A charming communication which showcases the distinct cocktail of worldly sophistication and genuine naiveté that formed the personality of America’s most lauded First Lady. Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis (1929-1994) was notoriously educated beyond her family’s modest means. From ages thirteen to fourteen she attended Holton Arms, a fashionable private academy in Washington. At fifteen Jackie enrolled at the prestigious Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, Connecticut, immersing herself in the arts, horseback riding, drama, and journalism (all pursuits that would prove lifelong) and making her first real friends in Susan Norton and Nancy Tuckerman. “Tucky,” referred to in the first paragraph, would become one of her most loyal associates, later serving, consecutively, as Jackie’s personal assistant, secretary, and ultimately as her official spokesperson. Tuckerman was one of the only non-family members present at the First Lady’s deathbed in New York in May 1994.
A remarkable survival.
(#4779)
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