Mrs. Kennedy Sues to Block Book On Assassination of President By Andrew J. Glass foimer .Federal Judge Simon WWII/Wan Pod Staff Writer H Rifkind, said a suit seek- NEW YORK, Dec, 14—Mrs. ing to stop publication will be John F. Kennedy said today filed in New York State Su- that she must seek a "hor- preme Court within 48 to 72 rible" court trial in an effort hnurs. "We will seek a variety to halt publication of the book , of relief against the defend- she had commissioned about ants, including a temporary the assassination of her hus- injuction to restrain the pub- band. lication of the magazine The widow of the late Pres- reticles and the book," Rifkind ident accused William Man- announced. chester, author of "Death• of a Mrs. Kennedy based her suit President," of having written on the alleged violation of a "a premature account of the contract signed on March 26, events of November, 1963, that 1964, between Manchester and is in part both tasteless and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D- distorted." N.Y.), who was then Attorney In a bitterly worded state- General. ment issued by her office The contract stated, in part, here, Mrs. Kennedy also de- Mitted PresK International that "the completed manu- clared: "I am equally shocked WILLIAM MANCHESTER script shall be reviewed by that reputable publishers Mrs. John F. Kennedy and . .. author of Kennedy book would take commercial advant- Robert F. Kennedy and the age of (Manchester's) failure text shall not be published un- to. keep his word." Hart serialization of the book less and until approved by The 350,000-word manuscript them." is scheduled to be published is due to appear in the Jan. After Mrs. Kennedy an- by Harper & Row in April. 10 issue of Look magazine. nounced she was bringing The first segment of a four- Mrs. Kennedy's la w y e r, See KENNEDY, A.3, Col. 3 KENNEDY—Frons Page Al rs. Kennedy Sues to suit, Harper & Row, who have• brought out virtually all of the recent best-selling biogra- phies of John F. Kennedy, Text of Mrs. John F. Kennedy's said they intended to go ahead with their publication plans NEW YORK, Dec. 14 (AP)—Here is the for "Death of a President." text of the statement by Mrs. John F. Ken- "We very much regret," the nedy on her suit to stop publication of Harper statement added, "that "Death of A President:" there is any misunderstanding with reference to this im- Look magazine, Harper & Row, and Mr, portant and significant his- William Manchester have repeatedly made torical document." clear that only legal action can alter their William Attwood, editor-In- insistence upon publishing at this time— chief of Cowles Communica- without regard to accepted standards of tions, Inc., publishers of Look, propriety and good faith, and in specific said: "There is a point at violation of my wishes, my contract with which you have to stop, where Mr. Manchester and the dignity and privacy censorship and freedom of which my children and I have striven with the press become the issue." difficulty to retain—a premature account Attwood, who served two of the events of November 1963 that is in years as President Kennedy's part both tasteless and distorted. Ambassador to Guinea, added Assaelated Press Its inaccurate and unfair references to other individuals, in contrast with its gen- that "no one here wants to MRS. JOHN F. KENNEDY embarrass t h e Kennedy's, erous references to all members of the least of all me." The editor ... to seek court action Kennedy family, are perhaps beyond my asserted that "there is nothing in the book that is in bad taste. If there was, I wouldn't Look, it was understood, will Manchester was alluding to win O. Guthman, national edi- allow it to be printed." • maintain in court that they the key to the defendants' tor of the Los Angeles Times, The first installment of the four planned Look articles—. possess valid contracts with case: A July 22 telegram from and John Seigenthaler, editor sold to the magazine by Man- the 44-year-old author, who Sen. Kennedy to the author of the Nashville Tennessean. chester's literary agent, re- was handpicked in 1964 by that said, in effect, that the Neither Mrs. Kennedy nor portedly for a record $650,000 Mrs. Kennedy to write the of- Kennedy family would not Sen. Kennedy has read the —has already gone to the ficial Kennedy family-spon- stand in the way of publishing Manchester account, but the printers. About two million sored account of the assassi- "Death of a President." Senator sent his two friends copies of the 8-million-copy nation. The wire from the Senator the manuscript in early 1966, press run have already been Manchester, who was at his was preceded by extensive ne- soon after the author had run off. home in Middletown, Conn., gotiations between the author completed his two-year writing Sources close to the Cowles after returning yesterday from and his publishers, on the one project. management said Look had a trip to Europe, said: "It's hand, an, on the other, two The friends recommended no intention of stopping the rather well known that I close friends of Robert Ken- changes in the text and some presses. Attorneys for both de- wouldn't have taken a step nedy who had been asked by of them were made. Most of fendants privately expressed in the publication of this book the Senator to read Manches- the revisions reflected what their belief that Mrs. Ken- without the approval of Rob- ter's first draft. Guthman and Seigenthaler nedy's impending court action ert Kennedy speaking as a The Kennedy friends, hoth felt were unduly harsh and was without legal merit. member of the Kennedy former high-level aides in the factually inaccurate assess- Both Harper & Row and family." Justice Department, are Ed- ments of Lyndon B. Johnson ■"1 Curb Publishers book came out after the elec- tion, it could be then inter- Statement on Book Suit preted as a Kennedy campaign document for the presidential prevention; but to expose to all the world elections of 1972. "Bob at this time all the private grief, personal thought it would be better to thoughts, and painful reactions which my children and I endured in those terrible go ahead and get it over days does not seem to me to be essential with," a source close to the to any current historical record. Senator reported. I am shocked that Mr. Manchester would Fresh difficulties arose, exploit the emotional state in which I re- however, after the sale to' counted my recollections to him early in Look. These new problems re- 1964; and I'm equally shocked that repu- volved almost entirely around table publishers would take commercial ad- Mrs. Kennedy's feelings that vantage of his failure to keep his word. To Manchester had breached a. the author and publishers this book will trust in quoting extensively. only be another transient chapter in their from their 10 hours of taped works; but my children and I will have to conversations that occurred on live with it for the rest of our lives. two successive evenings in • As horrible as a trial will be, it now late March, 1964. seems clear that my 9nly redress is to ask For a time, Look negotiated the courts to enforce my rights and post- on Mrs. Kennedy's behalf with pone publication until the minimum limits Richard N. Goodwin, a former of my family's privacy can be protected. presidential assistant to Ma'. Kennedy and Mr. Johnson and a close family friend. The at the time of the assassi- magazine's editors agreed to some revisions. They also. nation. agreed to postpone the seriali-, The original contract with zation from October to Jan- Manchester anticipated that uary, so that the articles his volume would appear five would not coincide with the years after the assassination, third anniversary of the Pres- ' although Mrs. Kennedy was ident's death. granted the right to change Several weeks ago. how- the publication date. ever, Look objected to any It was the Senator, however, more revisions and, denied who decided that the book representatives of the Ken- should come out in 1967. He nedy family further access to believed that if the book were the page proofs. Harper & to appear in 1968—a presiden- Row, for their part, reached tial election year — it could a similar decision last Friday. conceivably be used against It was these dual actions the re-election drive of Presi- that prompted Mrs. Kennedy's dent Johnson. decision over the weekend to However, in the mind of seek a court injunction against ■ the Senator, if the Manchester publication. Press Chief to Publish Paper Moyers Quits White House Job; Christian Will Be His Successor Resignation Laid To Family Matters; Jacobi Leaving (0-1-• By Carrol1 Kilpatrick Washington Poet Staff Writer White House Press Secre- tary Bill D. Moyers, the last member of President John- son's original White House staff, announced his resigna- tion yesterday. Moyers said that he would be succeeded by George Christian, 39-year-old native of Austin, Tex., who has been as- sistant to the President since May and has been pinch-hit- ting for Moyers as a spokes- man in recent weeks. Moyers will become publish- er and chief operating officer of Newsday, a highly success- ful Long Island daily. Moyers denied reports that there was any break with the President and asserted that he was leav- ing because of "personal fami- ly obligations" and with the President's "blessing." Moyers weighed several attractive offers before accept- ing the Newsday job—one, an offer from the President him- self to run LBJ's business interests in Texas, another from a group of Texans who are trying to buy the Houston Chronicle.