Dreaming in French: The Paris Years of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, Susan Sontag, and Angela Davis

301 Pages·2012·2.7 MB·English

by  Alice Kaplan

Dreaming in French
The Paris Years of
Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy,
Susan Sontag, and
Angela Davis
Dreaming
in French
Alice Kaplan
The University of Chicago Press : Chicago and London
Alice KAplAn is the author of The Collaborator: The Trial and Execution of Robert Brasillach, The
Interpreter, and French Lessons: A Memoir, all available from the University of Chicago Press. She
holds the John M. Musser chair in French literature at Yale. She lives in Guilford, Connecticut, and
in Paris.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2012 by Alice Kaplan
All rights reserved. Published 2012.
Printed in the United States of America
21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-42438-5 (cloth)
ISBN-10: 0-226-42438-3 (cloth)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kaplan, Alice Yaeger.
Dreaming in French : the Paris years of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, Susan Sontag, and Angela
Davis / Alice Kaplan.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-42438-5 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-226-42438-3 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Onassis, Jacqueline Kennedy, 1929–1994—
Homes and haunts—France—Paris. 2. Sontag, Susan, 1933–2004—Homes and haunts—
France—Paris. 3. Davis, Angela Y. (Angela Yvonne), 1944—Homes and haunts—France—Paris.
4. Women—United States—Biography. 5. Students, Foreign—France—Paris—Biography. 6.
Women—United States—Intellectual life. 7. United States—Civilization—French influences. I.
Title.
HQ1412.K37 2012
944’.361083609252—dc23
[B]
2011026598
Illustrations on title page: (left) Jacqueline Bouvier’s student ID photograph (1949), courtesy Claude
du Granrut; (center) a detail from a photograph of Susan Sontag in Sevilla (1958), courtesy Harriet
Sohmers Zwerling; (right) a detail from a photograph of Angela Davis following her acquittal (1972),
© Michelle Vignes, courtesy Standford University Libraries.
∞ This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).
For Florence, Sylvie, and François
And for L’équipe

Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Introduction 1
1. Jacqueline Bouvier: 1949–1950 7
2. Jacqueline Bouvier: The Return 47
3. Susan Sontag: 1957–1958 81
4. Susan Sontag: The Return 113
5. Angela Davis: 1963–1964 143
6. Angela Davis: The Return 177
Conclusion 223
A Note on Sources 229
Notes 237
Acknowledgments 267
Index 271
vii

Illustrations
1. Jacqueline Bouvier sails to France (1949) 2
2. Cordelia Ruffin Richards and Blaikie Forsyth Worth (1949) 25
3. Jacqueline Bouvier at a ball at Ledoyen (1950) 31
4. Jacqueline Bouvier’s student ID photo (1949) 37
5. Jeanne Saleil with Smith students (1950) 39
6. Jacqueline Bouvier on a summer trip (1950) 43
7. Jacqueline Bouvier on her twenty-first birthday (1950) 44
8. Claude de Renty on the Loire (1950) 45
9. Jacqueline Bouvier on the Loire (1950) 45
10. Jacqueline Kennedy and John Kennedy (1961) 63
11. Susan Sontag on the Pont au Double (1958) 94
12. Susan Sontag and Jean-Claude Brialy (1958) 107
13. Susan Sontag in front of Notre-Dame (ca. 1965) 123
14. Susan Sontag in her Paris hotel room (ca. 1965) 124
15. Henri Cartier-Bresson Portrait of Susan Sontag in Paris (1972) 133
ix