Reluctant First Lady.
[Roosevelt, Eleanor]. Hickok, Lorena A. Reluctant First Lady. Illustrated with photographs. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1962.
8vo.; teal cloth, spine stamped in black; gently bumped; photographically illustrated dust-jacket; small chip to head of spine. In a specially made cloth slipcase.
First edition of this early biography of ER, subtitled on the dust-jacket, “An Intimate Story of Eleanor Roosevelt’s Early Public Life” and told, according to the author in the Acknowledgements, “largely out of the memories of two persons—Mrs. Roosevelt’s and mine.” She explains, “This is especially true of our vacation motor trips, since on those trips we were alone or with strangers most of the time. Neither of us ever kept any notes or diaries,” and “[n]either Mrs. Roosvelt’s memory nor mine is infallible, of course,” so the staff of the FDR Library was called upon regularly for assistance. Hickok concludes her thanks with ER herself: “To her I can only say, after a friendship that has lasted nearly thirty years, ‘Thank you, my dear, for some of the happiest and most memorable days of my whole life!”
A presentation copy, inscribed on the half-title: To Maureen Corr—She’s still ‘just Mrs. Roosevelt,’ dear! Affectionately, Lorena A. Hickok.
Among Hickok’s achievements as sketched on the lower panel of the dust-jacket are the follow details: a journalist of twenty years experience, she was a confidential investigator for Harry Hopkins from 1933 to 1937; with the DNC for five years, including a stint as executive secretary to the Women’s Division; she later lasted three years as assistant to the vice-chairman of the NY State Democratic Committee. By the time of this publication, Hickok had already seen into print earlier biographies of ER, FDR, and Helen Keller for young readers, and had collaborated with ER on Ladies of Courage. She lived, not surprisingly, in Hyde Park.
Provenance: From the library of Maureen Corr, ER’s private secretary for nearly twenty years.]
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