A week after the death of JFK , Jacqueline Kennedy summoned White to the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port to rescue her husband 's legacy . She proposed that White prepare an article for '' Life '' magazine drawing a parallel between her husband and his administration to King Arthur and the mythical Camelot . At the time , a play of that name was being performed on Broadway and Jackie focused on the ending lyrics of an Alan Jay Lerner song , " Do n't let it be forgot , that once there was a spot , for one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot . " White , who had known the Kennedys from his time as a classmate of the late President 's brother , Joseph P. Kennedy , Jr. , was happy to oblige . He heeded some of Jackie 's suggestions while writing a 1,000 word essay that he dictated later that evening to his editors at '' Life '' . When they complained that the Camelot theme was overdone , Jackie objected to changes . By this telling , Kennedy 's time in office was transformed into a modern-day Camelot that represented , “ a magic moment in American history , when gallant men danced with beautiful women , when great deeds were done , when artists , writers , and poets met at the White House , and the barbarians beyond the walls held back . ” White later described his comparison of JFK to Camelot as the result of kindness to a distraught widow of a just-assassinated leader , and wrote that his essay was a " misreading of history . The magic Camelot of John F. Kennedy never existed . " After Watergate and the fall of Richard Nixon , White broke his quadrennial pattern with '' Breach of Faith : The Fall of Richard Nixon '' ( 1975 ) , a dispassionate account of the scandal and its players . There was no 1976 volume from White . ( The closest analogue was '' Marathon '' by Jules Witcover . ) After a volume of memoirs , published in 1978 , he returned to presidential coverage with the 1980 campaign , and '' America In Search of Itself : The Making of the President , 1956-80 '' ( 1982 ) , draws together original reporting and new social analysis of the previous quarter-century , focusing primarily but not exclusively on the Reagan-Carter contest
death of JFK
Assassination of John F. Kennedy
Theodore H. White