"The First Lady & The Writer, Provincetown, 1961" author, Brenda Pizzo, was well into her sixties when she got the idea to write about Jackie Kennedy. A time-line published in a local Provincetown newspaper mentioned that the last day in August of 1961, First Lady, Jackie Kennedy spent the day with writer, Gore Vidal in Provincetown. This was no small thing, as Jackie was the most famous woman on the planet. Pizzo's imagination was captured, and after heavily researching each mega personality of the 20th century, the idea took shape first in writing a play in four acts before turning the work into an historical fiction novella. How she and Vidal thought it was possible for her to join him, not in disguise or under cover of night, but by hiding in plain sight in broad daylight was an intriguing and true premise. They pulled it off. Jackie met Gore at his motel, they walk through town, had cocktails and dinner, took in a play and finally were refused entry into a private drinking club. JACQUELINE BOUVIER KENNEDY had recently become First Lady. At 31, she was thrust onto the world stage and determined to take her place on it. Greeted by two hundred-fifty-thousand adoring French citizens lining the streets of Paris was a powerful and intoxicating invitation. GORE VIDAL became a published author by the time he left the army at 21. He was intelligent, arrogant, gay and unapologetic. Related by marriage, in youth their paths never crossed. As adults, they became friends. Both had challenging upper class childhoods that brought advantages to prepare them for their worlds and their places in it. Both grabbed the limelight with a vengeance. But for Jackie, the assassination complicated how she would come to view fame. Each are depicted not as the larger than life personifications they presented to the world at their zenith, but as sophisticated, real, and down to earth people. The book delves deeply into Jackie’s and Gore’s distinct personalities and the journey they each traveled to arrive at this particular place in time. In 2024 Jackie would had been 95 had she not died from cancer in 1994, 30 years after her death interest in her has not waned.

Pizzo spent her formative years in Woburn, Massachusetts, the working-class suburb of Boston in the 1950s and 1960s and yearned for the sophisticated and expansive world of her titular subjects, Jackie Kennedy and Gore Vidal. They were glamorous, they knew everyone who was anyone, and both had been to so many wonderful places. Fantastic cities like New York City, Paris, Rome and so many countries she hoped to go. The assassination, of President John F. Kennedy happened when Pizzo was ten-years-old, was a life changing event.

Retired now and residing in Boston with her husband of more than forty years, she can say with some satisfaction that she has seen much of the world and has obtained the fulfilled life she dreamed of in youth. Pizzo is also the author of two other books, "Mr. Porter's Birthday Surprise" inspired by her miniature house that she built and has been embellishing for decades, imagines the family that "lives" in it and "Jo's Art School Portfolio, 1940s Fashion" inspired by her mother-in-law's art school portfolio and as a labor of love dedicated to her.

“Between the two of them, they seem to know everyone, and the cool sophistication they possess comes across as refreshing rather than snobbish.”
– Kirkus Reviews