At last, a firsthand look at the emotionally charged correspondence
between Eleanor Roosevelt and "first friend" Lorena Hickok,
believed by many to be the First Lady's lover. Streitmatter
(Journalism/American Univ.; Mightier Than the Sword, 1997) has
collected and annotated more than 300 of the perhaps more than
3,500 letters exchanged by Roosevelt and Hickok between 1933 and
1962, when ER, as she signed herself, died. The letters document
that the relationship was not only "intense and intimate, but also
passionate and physical," notes the editor. Hickok destroyed many
letters, explaining that the First Lady "wasn't always so very
discreet in her letters to me." Hickok (a.k.a. Hick) was a talented
and successful reporter for the Associated Press, assigned to cover
Franklin Roosevelt's 1932 campaign 'for president. As she also
began writing stories about Eleanor, the two grew close. When the
First Lady moved into the White House, she began writing Hickok
daily, and sometimes twice a day, often beginning "Hick darling"
and concluding with words of longing: "t would give a good deal to
put my arms around you and to fee/yours around me." Hick's
responses were less effusive, but still affectionate. She also
advised the First Lady on how to put her stamp on the White House
role, suggesting press conferences and the "My Day" column, and
urging her to make the famous coal mine visit. As public and family
demands on Eleanor accelerated, her relationship with Hick became
more distant. But she remained loyal in Hick's difficult later
years, offering her financial and emotional support. No graphic
descriptions of sexual play, but the cumulative power of these
ardent letters makes it hard to believe that Eleanor and Hick's
relationship was "entirely asexual," as one of the Roosevelt
granddaughters insists. (Kirkus Reviews)
In 1978, more than 3,500 letters written over a thirty-year
friendship between Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok were
discovered by archivists. Although the most explicit letters had
been burned (Lorena told Eleanor's daughter, "Your mother wasn't
always so very discreet in her letters to me"), the find was still
electrifying enough to create controversy about the nature of the
women's relationship. Historian Rodger Streitmatter has transcribed
and annotated more than 300 of those letters,published here for the
first time,and put them within the context of the lives of these
two extraordinary women, allowing us to understand the role of this
remarkable friendship in Roosevelt's transformation into a
crusading First Lady.
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