Empty Without You The Intimate Letters Of Eleanor Roosevelt And Lorena Hickok

by Streitmatter, Rodger

• ISBN13: 9780306809989
• ISBN10: 0306809982
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-10-05
• Publisher: Da Capo Press

Summary

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 letterspublished here for the first timeand 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.

Author Biography

Rodger Streitmatter is a professor of communications at American University. A former reporter for the Roanoke (Virginia) Times & World News, he is the author of five previous books. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Table of Contents

Introduction	xiii
Prologue The Lady and the Reporter	1	(14)
One
March 1933 The Pain of Separation	15	(12)
July 1933 A Perfect Holiday	27	(6)
Two
September-December 1933 ``Deeply & Tenderly''	33	(30)
Three
January-February 1934 ``A World of Love''	63	(20)
March 1934 A Holiday Gone Bad	83	(6)
Four
March-July 1934 ``To Put My Arms Around You''	89	(30)
August 1934 Another Holiday Disrupted	119	(8)
Five
August-December 1934 . Letting Go but Holding On	127	(18)
Six
1935 ``Life's Rough Seas''	145	(34)
Seven
1936-1939 Drifting Apart?	179	(44)
Eight
1940-1944 Enemies Abroad; New ``Friends'' at Home	223	(40)
Nine
1945-1962 Living in Two Different Worlds	263	(28)
Epilogue The Long Way Home	291	(6)
Acknowledgments	297	(2)
Index	299