William Kuhn

I'm a biographer and historian. Mrs Queen Takes the Train is my first novel. There are certain things a biographer or a historian just can't say, but a novelist can. I thought I'd give it a whirl.

Before this I wrote Reading Jackie about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis's personality as revealed through the books she edited at Viking and Doubleday.

Everyone knows about the White House parties, the marriages, the pretty dresses and the yacht in Greece, but did you know about the woman whose greatest passion was for her books? In her declining months, she was still at work making suggestions to her authors from her sickbed.

Her publishing years lasted longer than her two marriages combined. She produced both hits and misses, but publishing professionals today still admire her list. Not bad for a career she only came to and learned in her mid 40s.

Mine is the first book ever commissioned by Doubleday on their former employee and many of her colleagues talk here for the first time. Nancy Tuckerman remembered taking Jackie down to the Doubleday cafeteria. Jackie loaded up her tray, breezed by the cash registers, and sat down at a table. Nancy joined her saying, "Did you pay Jackie?" "Oh," said Jackie, "Do you have to pay?"

I've also done books on Victorian prime ministers and the British monarchy.

I taught for more than twenty years at the college and university level, where the Social Science Research Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities both supported my research.

I hope you like my books! :-)

Here's a video of me talking about Jackie at the Boston Athenaeum: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/HerAu