Camelot at Dawn: Jacqueline and John Kennedy in Georgetown, May 1954 [Hardcover]

Anne Garside (Author), Orlando Suero (Photographer), Peabody Institute (Epilogue)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 29, 2001

"I have just seen McCall's and so has Jack and we are so happy... They are the only pictures I've ever seen of me where I don't look like something out of a horror movie. If I'd realized what a wonderful photographer you were... I never would have been the jittery subject I was. Poor Orlando! Remember I wouldn't even eat a Good Humor. I was so lens-shy." -- Jacqueline Kennedy, in a letter to Orlando Suero

In January 1954, the handsome junior senator from Massachusetts and his glamorous wife moved into a three-story townhouse at 3321 Dent Place in Georgetown. Although they would live here for only five months, the house was their first home after their wedding -- the society event of the decade -- and a place from which they could begin to prepare for the next step in their lives, one that would take John and Jacqueline Kennedy to the White House. In May of that year, Orlando Suero, a photographer with the Three Lions Picture Agency on his first major assignment, spent five days with the Kennedys. He enjoyed their full cooperation and the intimate access that would later, as Jacqueline became more anxious about her family's privacy, be denied to all but a few.

In more than twenty photo sessions, Suero documented a typical week in the young couple's life: Jack at his Senate office, catching up on work at home, and painting in the back garden; Jackie attending classes at Georgetown, gardening, and preparing for an evening of dinner and dancing; and the couple reading the morning papers around the breakfast table, looking through their wedding photos, hosting both casual and formal dinner parties, and tossing the football around with neighbors Bobby and Ethel Kennedy.

Suero's photographs capture the idyllic quality of the young couple's lives during their months in Georgetown. Not yet hounded by the media, John and Jacqueline in these images seem happier and more at ease than they would ever be again. Surprisingly, no magazine ever published Suero's complete photo essay. McCall's ran a few of his photographs that fall, but most of them have not been seen until now. In 1989, Three Lions Picture Agency owner Max Lowenherz donated the photographs to the Johns Hopkins University's Peabody Institute. For Camelot at Dawn, the Peabody Institute's Anne Garside has selected nearly one hundred of the most evocative and affecting pictures Suero took during his week in Georgetown. This remarkable document of John and Jacqueline Kennedy's first year of marriage recalls the romance and the promise embodied by their life together in America's last age of innocence.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A stunning collection of images of the dashing young couple." -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"There is something naturally sweet about these pictures that no amount of worldly skepticism or factual realism can erase." -- Washington Post

"Suero could not know it at the time, but his camera was recording the couple in just about the last window of opportunity in which Jack and Jackie could appear as happy newlyweds... In spite of various underlying tensions, Suero's photographs project an idyllic quality, capturing a time of comparative innocence." -- Ken Whelan and Cormac Bourke, Ireland on Sunday

"The Kennedy mystique still draws flocks of people to gaze at the former president's home in Georgetown. For those who need a bit more, this photo-illustrated chronicle of John and Jackie's first foray into Washington real estate might be just perfect." -- Washington Post

"The black and white photos reveal a simpler, more innocent age." -- Helga Rich, Jerusalem Post

"These pictures of Jack and Jackie show a youthful innocence that is almost breathtaking. They look like college students as well as newlyweds, their faces unmarked by the troubles that lay ahead. A wonderful, early, carefree glimpse of these two people before they changed the world." -- Ben Bradlee

"What a wonderful, intimate glimpse of two young newlyweds, who were to change the face of American history! These delightfully warm photographs show a side of the Kennedys before all the pomp and circumstance entered their lives, and before celebrity voyeurism removed every vestige of privacy from them." -- Letitia Baldrige, Former White House Social Secretary during the Kennedy Administration

Book Description

An intimate photo essay of John and Jacqueline Kennedy's first year of marriage in their Georgetown home

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press (October 29, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801868564
• ISBN-13: 978-0801868566
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 9.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,366,077 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #93 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( O ) > Onassis, Jacqueline Kennedy

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars in the crowd of Kennedy books published, this is a STANDOUT!, November 25, 2001

By 

V. Garlock "Radical Feminist" (Sandusky, OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Camelot at Dawn: Jacqueline and John Kennedy in Georgetown, May 1954 (Hardcover)

Can the Kennedys ever have a bad photograph taken of them? It is appears not, as this book illustrates. CAMELOT AT DAWN is kind of an artsy photojournalism feast for the eyes, and although at first glance the text will seem to have general information that we all know about, it too is a treat.

Orlando Suero had his first big assignment taking pictures of Jacqueline Kennedy for McCall's magazine for an article. It would turn out that most of his shots would not be used because the press felt that the Kennedys had been overexposed in the media due to their wedding--so it is only now in this book that most of the pictures taken for that assignment have been published.
Suero says that JFK manages to sneek himself into most pictures, and so the final result became as much as about him as Jackie...but we also see the Bobby Kennedys as well as the former President Trumans.

Some of these pictures have been published in other books, so not all of them are seen here for the first time, but seeing them within the context that they were shot makes the photos that have been seen before all the more interesting. However, it is only a few--most of these are just being seen for the first time.

As for the text, some of it is "well duh" text because it is known by everybody:"Jackie was a silver-and-Sevres kind of girl, whereas Jack was a milkshake-and-hamburger kind of guy." (I am not cutting on Anne Garside's writing--because the book is actually quite good, I am just trying to point out that some of the information that she writes everyone knows in their sleep...as that is how famous Jack and Jackie have become.) Now don't take this sentence of Garside's alone--you have to read the whole book before you dare judge her writing, and in my estimation she has succeded in the overall scheme in making two well known sujects seem like new again. How does she do this?
For example, there is information about the renting of Dent Place--where these photographs are taken as well the Kennedys first home--which is interesting because we get to see excerpts from Jackie's letters to the Childs (the people who the Kennedys were renting the house from.)
Also information about Evelyn Lincoln's calender is given as to what the Kennedy's were doing the week the photos were taken, as well as little details spread out throughout the text that make the book an interesting read.

I believe that this is a standout book published on the Kennedys. It is informative and orginal in text, and the pictures easily give Lowe, Avedon, and Shaw a run for their money. You can and will enjoy this book if you give it a chance--don't get stuck on the information about the JFKs that we all know or the pictures that we have all seen--read the entire book and appreciate the entire book!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Photographs that today are stunning in their meaning, September 3, 2003

By 

William Makeul "William Makeul" (Maryland, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Camelot at Dawn: Jacqueline and John Kennedy in Georgetown, May 1954 (Hardcover)

As someone who grew up in the Kennedy era, these images had a profound effect on me. They are images that shortly after they were made, could never have been made again. Can you imagine seeing Jack and Jackie Kennedy strolling alone down the streets of Georgetown (in DC), her wearing shorts and him wearing sneakers and a plain t-shirt? Or playing football in a public park with absolutely NO gawkers hanging around? The great impact of these pictures comes from their innocence and irony, because of what came after and what we now know. If you remember the Kennedy era, you might stare at some of the images in this book for many minutes in wonder, about the people in the picture, about yourself, and about how we were then and are now. I gave this book to my brother-in-law--a recognized expert on the Kennedy assination--and he said he almost cried. It's that good.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A typical week in the young couple's life, June 7, 2005

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Camelot at Dawn: Jacqueline and John Kennedy in Georgetown, May 1954 (Paperback)

Camelot At Dawn: Jacqueline & John Kennedy In Georgetown, May 1954 is the collaborative work of photographer Orlando Suero and author Anne Garside. As his first major photography assignment, Suero spent five days with the Kennedys in May of 1954. He enjoyed their full cooperation and the intimate access that produced more than twenty photo sessions as Suero documented a typical week in the young couple's life including Jack at his Senate office, Jackie attending classes at Georgetown, and the couple playing touch football in the park. Camelot At Dawn is a "must" for all of those whose lives and imaginations where touched by one of America's most idealized couples before tragedy would shattered both their personal lives and those all too brief days of an American "Camelot" for the rest of us.