Kennedy - Death of a President

Death of a president

The death of a president article was very interesting to read. It showed me how the right connections and power can influence people. Although William Manchester was not Jacqueline Kennedy's first choice he was chosen to write the authorized book on the assignation of President Kennedy. Their are several issues the writer faced in trying to finish this book. When he agreed to do this book after the Kennedy's press secretary personally called him to ask if he write the official accounts of the assignation he felt like he couldn't say no to Mrs. Kennedy.

Issues/conclusion:

The first issue I found was that Manchester literally up rooted his life quit his job and moved to another location to devote his time and energy into writing something he felt was going to be worth it, even though he wasn't paid a large amount to do so. The second issue was he spent countless hours interviewing Jackie Kennedy and other family members related to John Kennedy as well as witnesses in Dallas. He put so much energy and time interviewing and writing that he neglected himself; he worked on the book everyday for hours at a time. Another issue would be that he not only neglected himself but he also neglected his family moving out of the family home and into a rented $150 a month room. He lost weight and even had to be hospitalized and was diagnosed with nervous exhaustion. After almost sacrificing his health for the sake of the book he was met with resistance from the very people who requested his help to begin with. They especially Jackie felt that Manchester was being offered too much money for the manuscript and that to much personal information was being disclosed. Manchester faced opposition from the Kennedy family and even his own publisher who didn't necessarily support him throughout the entire ordeal.

In conclusion Manchester won and agreed to cut 1,600 words from the article and 7 pages out of the books 654 pages. He eventually returned back home and wrote eight more books.

Reasons:

Some reasons for the issues are that the Kennedy family wanted to give a personal account of what happened when the president was assented to keep false information and unauthorized books and articles to come out with the wrong information. Manchester must have felt in order to give the book its due justice he had to put everything he had inside of him into the writing and research process of the book. He assumed after his hard work the Kennedy family would support the writings and approve of the book.

Ambiguous words or phrases:

One ambiguous phrase was when the first lady considered Jim Bishop a "hack" who asked too many personal questions, Bishop was writing the unofficial book on the Kennedy assignation against the Kennedy family approval.