Love, Jack

by Gunilla von Post

He was a dashing young senator pursued by an Italian contessa and the imposing forces of his destiny.??She was a 21-year-old Swedish aristocrat away from home for the first time.??Their accidental meeting at a port in the Riviera changed both their lives forever. Spanning two continents and the Atlantic Ocean, unfolding over a six-year period beginning in 1953, Love, Jack is the story of a transcendent but heartbreaking love between two people at the peak of their youth and beauty, a love that seemed impossible but could not be denied.??Here is an intimate portrait of John Kennedy never before seen: a gentle, kind, and caring man, intensely passionate and full of life but a man who faces great difficulty adjusting to the demanding role history and his father have assigned him. Driven by his love for Gunilla von Post, Jack risked the sort of exposure that might have ruined his career and was willing to endure debilitating pain to cross the ocean for her.??For the sake of her passion, Gunilla risked the ostracism of her family and friends, ready to turn her back on the country she loved. Love, Jack is the heartwarming account of a history-making romance, a "brief, shining moment" before Camelot, before an assassin's bullets shattered the hopes of a nation a moment in time that Gunilla von Post is at last ready to share with the world.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0609600958
• ISBN13: 9780609600955
• Release Date: August 1997
• Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
• Length: 158 Pages
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

A memoir of romance

It's 1953 on the Cote d'Azur. A beautiful blond 21-year-old Swedish aristocrat meets a charismatic, boyish American senator with what she calls a "fascinating accent." They spend a romantic (and chaste) evening together, share a passionate kiss, and he professes his love. But, alas, the handsome prince is about to turn into a married man -- the very next week. So that's that. Or should have been. But the newly married, ambitious, increasingly famous senator writes ardently and phones often, declaring how much he needs "my Swedish flicka" and vowing they will meet again in Paris or the Riviera on his next trip through. So goes the story in "Love, Jack," Gunilla von Post's memoir of her romance with John F. Kennedy. Two years after that memorable night (part of the delay was due to his back surgery and long hospitalization), Kennedy visited von Post in Sweden, where they spent an idyllic week in the country, and he charmed the socks off all of her family. As they parted, he told her he wanted her in his life and promised to "talk to my father about us." Well, you know how that turned out. This is the story of their long, and long-distance, romance that lasted for many years. -- The New York Times

question for gunilla

I haven't read your book yet but i have ordered it. I just wondered if you knew why jack stayed married to jackie?Why didn't he divorce her before he was well known throughout the country? and do you think he ever loved her? It just makes me said to think that you and jack were in love but that jackie might never have known that in her life.

Thank you, Gunilla!

This book gives a very rare glimpse into JFK's private life before the White House years. Ms. von Post's viewpoint is truly unique - - JKF fell in love with her during a fortuitous meeting in France which led to a romantic evening together that same day in 1953; this was followed by two years of periodic correspondence and phone calls leading to a week-long reunion in Sweden during the summer of 1955. One gets a first-hand account of the young senator's personality from a woman who loved him (although she knew he was married) that paints a much different picture from those biographers who treat him more as a self-serving womanizer. The book also reveals the extent to which JFK was subservient to his father's demands, although one also gets the sense that at times the young senator truly wished he could break away from his father's intentions and be his own man. This he succeeds in doing, if only for a week, during the magical time he spends with Ms. von Post in 1955. Thank you, Gunilla, for sharing your own personal story of one of history's most fascinating personalities.

5 STARS ...... NOT ENOUGH !

I was absolutely delighted to read such a wonderful book about a part of John F.Kennedy's life. This book has helped to present to the world the real Jack Kennedy: the sensitive man who, for some but rare, precious and stolen moments, wanted to live his own life, go his own way and not only follow the one created by others for him.He mighted seem to be a kind of a dreamer to think he could escape the constant pressure on his shoulder and what he was daily ask to be and to present to the world by loving someone from the other side of the Atlantic . But I am sure and convinced that Gunilla Von Post was really someone special to him (and in his heart) and that she helped him a lot during this magic period for both of them.Why is he someone so misunderstood? Why some persons think he was cold and could not have loved someone? Remember that he was a human being and not a myth. Why is it so difficult for others to believe this story and John Kennedy' feelings toward Gunilla Von Post?Instead of just collecting books about John Kennedy, some of reviewers should have read them. And if they think that Gunilla Von Post was just another woman in Jack Kennedy's life, they really misunderstood the whole man! Thank you very much Mrs Gunilla " Gorilla" Von Post to have share your story with us and I hope that one day people will understand your decision.