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This week I am exploring two books about Eleanor Roosevelt and the love affair that helped make her the independent, fearless and influential woman she became. The first book, “Eleanor and Hick” is Susan Quinn’s historical account of Roosevelt’s friendship and eventual love affair with political journalist Lorena Hickok. Hickok wrote for the Associated Press and was one of the few women who covered White House politics for a national news organization. Quinn teases out the dramatic differences between the women: Eleanor was born into money and married into more when she wed Franklin Roosevelt. Lorena Hickok was born into poverty in South Dakota and struggled to succeed in journalism, working at the Star Tribune before heading east. The Roosevelt marriage was often an awkward and unhappy one. Eleanor began to build an independent life outside of the cloistered world of the White House. There, she found a confidante, close friend and lover in Lorena Hickok. The second book that explores this historic relationship is Amy Bloom’s “White Houses.” It’s a novel that unfolds on a road trip undertaken by Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok in a torpid July of 1933. The two women set off, freed from Secret Service minders and family obligations, for New England and Canada for what becomes “a golden time” in their relationship. “We glided from place to place,” Bloom writes in Hickok's voice, “In love, in rapture, enjoying each day, all day.” This novel is short but Bloom’s poignant writing brings you inside the generous love between these two women.
— Kerri Miller | MPR News | 