Eleanor and Roosevelt

Sometimes life just catches up with us and we have to adjust. So, we are currently taking a break from the bookclub. There will be no meeting in October, but I do hope we can resume in November.

In the mean time what are you reading? I have been reading in the area of US history lately, more specifically about US presidents. Within the last few months I've read biographies of Theodore Roosevelt, Harry S Truman, and Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt. They were all books that I pulled off of my bookshelf or my Dad's bookshelf. Both of us have been buying at used book stores at a faster rate than we read for years. My current economic situation has required that I slow my rate of buying and as a consequence I have discovered some gems that I had overlooked.

One of these is Eleanor and Franklin by Joseph Lash. It was originally published in the 70s and based largely on Eleanor Roosevelt's correspondence. The book is dense, but fascinating. Eleanor is the focus as the author was a long time friend of hers. For this reason, it may be more forgiving than other biographies, but it is well documented. The biography covers the time from her childhood through FDR's death in 1945. You get insight into this fascinating woman who, because of her childhood, began her adult life with an intense desire to please.  Where she has a desperate desire to connect intimately with other humans, she marries a man who rarely shares intimacies with anyone and brings with him a very dominating mother. Franklin's father was much older than his mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt, so when he died, Franklin was her life. She would dominate his life until she died, even to the point of building Eleanor and Franklin a townhouse in New York City next to her own with sliding doors on each floor connecting the two homes.

In the book, Lash shows how Eleanor evolves through time, gradually freeing herself from the influence of Sara and to a degree from Franklin. By the time they are in the White House, Eleanor has become a force independent of Franklin. The transformation began with her discovery of his affair with Lucy Mercer. Although they stayed together, in many ways Eleanor was set free from that time.  She was still his partner in and always sensitive to not wanting to hinder his political success, in fact wanting to enhance it. She kept him in the public eye, after he was struck down by polio, when he couldn't do it himself.

While FDR was focused on his health, Eleanor began to get involved more and more with politics. She made new friends, learned about social issues, and developed skills in speaking and writing.  Eleanor and Franklin tells the story of how Eleanor discovered her own causes, how she influenced FDR, and how she couldn't influence him. She was in many ways an idealist, where he was a realist, but she was also often his conscience.

Lash has written another book about Eleanor's life, Eleanor: The Years Alone. Fortunately, my Dad has it, so I may have to raid his book shelf again.