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Barbara Leaming is an American biographer, whose subjects have included Roman Polanski, Orson Welles, Rita Hayworth, Marilyn Monroe, John F. Kennedy, Winston Churchill, and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
Leaming, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, graduated from Haddonfield Memorial High School in Haddonfield, NJ, in June 1961, and earned her B.A. degree from Smith College in 1965 and her Ph.D. from New York University in 1976. She wrote her doctoral dissertation, Engineers of Human Souls, on the transition to socialist realism in the Soviet cinema of the 1930s. [1]
She was a long time professor in the Department of Theatre and Film at Hunter College in New York City until she left to devote herself to writing full-time. [2] Her articles have appeared in Vanity Fair, [3] [4] and The New York Times Magazine . [5]
Leaming won the Emery Reves Award of the International Churchill Society for her book Churchill Defiant: 1945-1955. [6] She also was awarded the Prix Litteraire 2000 by the Syndicat français de la critique de cinéma for her biography of Marilyn Monroe which was published by Albin Michel in France under the title Marilyn, une femme.
In 1985, Leaming's authorized biography of Orson Welles was described by Anna Quindlen, writing in The New York Times Book Review , as "a biography that splendidly evokes a good deal of the man, his work and his time." [7] Kirkus Reviews saw it as "a distinguished gift to American arts and letters." [8] The Los Angeles Times called Leaming's 1992 biography of Bette Davis "a strong, poignant biography that has truth-telling power." [9] Leaming's 1995 biography of Katharine Hepburn was said by Entertainment Weekly to tell the actress's story "with an empathy and acuity desperately rare in biographies of film stars." [10] In 1998, Leaming published her biography of Marilyn Monroe which Molly Haskell, writing in The New York Times Book Review, said "restores Marilyn's humanity, gives flesh-and-blood, intelligence and initiative, to the archetypal dumb blonde." [11]
In 2006 Leaming turned from the film world to the world of politics and history with her biography Jack Kennedy: The Education of a Statesman. Christopher Hitchens declared in The Atlantic Monthly : "The great merit of Barbara Leaming's new book is to demonstrate how dependent the young Kennedy became upon a charmed circle of British noblemen, and also how obsessed he became with the need to match himself with that greatest of Anglo-American aristocrats, Winston Churchill." [12] In the London Sunday Telegraph , Christopher Silvester wrote of Leaming's JFK book, "No previous biographer has focused so sharply on Kennedy's attempts to apply Churchillian thought during his years in the White House." [13]
Leaming next told the story of Winston Churchill's last ten years of public life in her book Churchill Defiant. Writing in Finest Hour: The Journal of Winston Churchill, Richard M. Langworth said, "Leaming's insight is extraordinary." [14] Leaming's Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: The Untold Story appeared in 2014. The Boston Globe review commented that the book, "provides suggestive evidence that her subject suffered from the clinical symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD." [15] Leaming reconstructed the life of John F. Kennedy's sister Kathleen in her 2016 biography of Kick Kennedy, a book described by The Wall Street Journal as "strikingly original." [16]
Summarizing Leaming's career as a biographer, the Canadian magazine Maclean's wrote in 2014 that "Leaming has built a formidable reputation for shaping biographies of outsized figures" that are "masterfully rendered and enticing." [17]
She lives in Connecticut. [18]
Jacqueline "Jackie" Lee Kennedy Onassis was an American writer, book editor, and socialite who served as the first lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963, as the wife of President John F. Kennedy. A popular first lady, she endeared the American public with her devotion to her family, dedication to the historic preservation of the White House, the campaigns she led to preserve and restore historic landmarks and architecture along with her interest in American history, culture and arts. During her lifetime, she was regarded as an international icon for her unique fashion choices, and her work as a cultural ambassador of the United States made her very popular globally.
Janet Norton Lee Auchincloss, previously Bouvier, was an American socialite. She was the mother of the former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and Princess Lee Radziwill.
Caroline Lee Bouvier, later Canfield, Radziwiłł, and Ross, was an American socialite, public relations executive, and interior designer. She was the younger sister of former First Lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis and sister-in-law of President John F. Kennedy.
John Vernou "Black Jack" Bouvier III was an American Wall Street stockbroker and socialite. He was the father of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and of socialite Princess Lee Radziwill, and was the father-in-law of John F. Kennedy.
Janet Jennings Auchincloss Rutherfurd was an American socialite. She was the half sister of the former First Lady of the United States, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and socialite Princess Lee Radziwill.
On the evening of August 4, 1962, American actress Marilyn Monroe died at age 36 of a barbiturate overdose inside her home at 12305 Fifth Helena Drive in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California. Her body was discovered before dawn the following morning, on August 5. Monroe had been one of the most popular Hollywood stars during the 1950s and early 1960s, and was a top-billed actress for the preceding decade. Her films had grossed $200 million by the time of her death.
After the Fall is a play by the American dramatist Arthur Miller.
Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale was an American socialite and singer known for her reclusive and eccentric lifestyle. Known as Big Edie, she was a sister of John Vernou Bouvier III and an aunt of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and socialite Princess Lee Radziwill. Her life and relationship with her daughter Edith Bouvier Beale was highlighted in the 1975 documentary Grey Gardens.
Lasata is an estate in East Hampton, New York, that was the childhood summer home of the future First Lady of the United States Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis until she was about 12.
Donald Spoto was an American biographer and theologian. He was known for his bestselling biographies of people in the worlds of film and theater, and for his books on theology and spirituality.
A major American icon, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis has been portrayed, alluded to, and referred to in many media in the popular culture from the 1960s and continuing into the 21st century.
Charles Higham was an English author, editor and poet.
Arms and the Covenant is a 1938 non-fiction book written by Winston Churchill. It was later published in the United States as While England Slept; a Survey of World Affairs, 1932–1938. It highlighted the United Kingdom's lack of military preparation to face the threat of Nazi Germany's expansion and attacked the current policies of the British government, led by the Conservative Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. The book galvanised many of his supporters and built up public opposition to the Munich Agreement.
The dress worn by Jacqueline Bouvier for her wedding to John F. Kennedy in 1953 is one of the best-remembered bridal gowns of all time.
James F. Kelly is an American actor best known for playing Robert F. Kennedy. Between the years 1981 and 1997 he played RFK in seven different productions.
Frances Laura Spencer-Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, was a British noblewoman and socialite. She was variously Viscountess Long, Countess of Dudley and became Duchess of Marlborough upon her fourth marriage, to John Spencer-Churchill, 10th Duke of Marlborough. She was the sister of novelist Hugo Charteris and Ann Charteris, as well as the granddaughter of Hugo Charteris, 11th Earl of Wemyss. Her third husband, Michael Temple Canfield, was the former husband of Lee Radziwill, sister of First Lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. During World War II, she served as an auxiliary nurse.
Tatiana Celia Kennedy Schlossberg is an American journalist and author. She is a daughter of Caroline Kennedy, the U.S. Ambassador to Australia, and the second granddaughter of John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States and First Lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. A reporter for The New York Times covering climate change, she has also written for The Atlantic. She is the author of the book Inconspicuous Consumption (2019).
John Randall Anthony Taraborrelli is an American journalist and celebrity biographer. Prior to his book-writing career, he was a magazine journalist and editor-in-chief of Soul magazine, the black entertainment title. Taraborrelli is known for biographies of contemporary entertainers and political figures such as Frank Sinatra, Diana Ross, Marilyn Monroe, Michael Jackson, Madonna, the Kennedy family, the Hilton family, and Beyoncé. He also regularly appears on television as an entertainment news reporter on programs such as Entertainment Tonight, Good Morning America, Today and CBS This Morning. Taraborrelli lives in California.
Jackie, Ethel, Joan: The Women of Camelot is a 2001 American drama miniseries directed by Larry Shaw and written by David Stevens. It is based on the 2000 book Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot by J. Randy Taraborrelli. The film stars Jill Hennessy, Lauren Holly, Leslie Stefanson, Daniel Hugh Kelly, Robert Knepper, Matt Letscher, Harve Presnell and Charmion King. The film premiered on NBC in two parts on March 4, 2001, and March 5, 2001.
James Thomas Lee was an American lawyer, banker, and real estate investor who was the maternal grandfather of former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and Princess Lee Radziwill.
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