AMERICA'S QUEEN: A Life of Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis.

• Author: McElwaine, Sandra
• Position: Review

AMERICA'S QUEEN: A Life of Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis by Sarah Bradford Viking, $30.05

IN 447 PAGES OF EXTRAORDINARY detail, English biographer Sarah ,Bradford has dished the dirt on Jackie O, trashed the glare of Cam, and told us more about the Bouviers and the Kennedys than most of us will probably ever want to know.

To collect this mountain of material she has read every book on the subject, (those, according to the bibliography, total more than 300 works); scoured the archives on both sides of the Atlantic, and conducted interviews with a raft of the legendary first lady's relatives and friends, including her sister Lee Radziwill and sister-in-law Joan Kennedy, as well as one insistent self-professed lover, architect John Carl Warnecke. The result is largely a rehash of every rumor and story in the public domain, assembled in one large volume. It is not a pretty picture but rather a devastating portrait of social climbing, venality, and deceit.

Right here I should say that I know Sarah Bradford. We met in Washington while she was researching this opus, and I was extremely skeptical that there was anything more to be written on the iconic Mrs. Onassis. But Bradford's compilation, plus some new revelations, is a truly stunning feat.

Jackie's addiction to playboys and priapic older men sprang from her adoration of her boozing, philandering father, John Vernou Bouvier III. Known as "BlackJack" for his striking dark looks and Valentino manner, he instructed her early on that "all men are rats," and lived up to his aphorism. While visiting her at Farmington, her boarding school, one weekend he casually discussed his conquests and future prospects among the mothers visiting at the same time. Jackie was his favorite daughter and Bradford suggests there was almost an incestuous component to their intense relationship.

Her mother Janet, whom Jackie basically disliked, was a schemer who tried to elevate her pedigree by seeking social approbation and big money. After a bitter divorce from the womanizing Bouvier, she managed to snag the twice divorced, extremely well-heeled Standard Oil heir, Hugh D. Auchincloss. A retiring, mild man with a penchant for pornography, Hughdie, as he was called, was the ultimate WASP: A member of the establishment and a pillar of Washington and Newport society, with several children and two large estates, including Hammersmith Farm in Newport, Rhode Island, where Jack and Jackie's wedding reception was held.

Jackie and...