Kati Marton (63 page)

“No one who ever saw Eleanor …” quoted in ER’s
My Day,
p. 42. “He might have been happier …”
The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt (This I Remember)
(New York: Harper, 1961), p. 279.

The story and quotes relating to Eleanor’s childhood are drawn from
The Autobiography of ER,
pp. 3–17. Quotations from the letters she wrote Franklin are found in the FDR Library and are reprinted by Lash in
Eleanor and Franklin,
p. 110.

“Not only I but you are the luckiest …” FDR Library and Lash,
Eleanor and Franklin,
p. 112.

“I wondered,” she wrote Franklin …” Ibid., p. 108.

“In the autumn of 1908…”
The Autobiography of ER,
p. 61.

“I was perfectly certain …” Ibid., p. 75.

“It is a little like a drug habit …” Ward,
A First Class Temperament,
p. 210.

“I am sometimes a little selfish …” Ibid., p. 210.

“the bottom dropped out …” ER letter to Joe Lash, October 25, 1943, FDR Library.

“How could she forgive him …” author’s conversation with ER’s granddaughter Kate Roosevelt Whitney.

“After that, father and mother …” James Roosevelt Oral History, Columbia University Library.

Eleanor’s political education: based in part on the author’s interviews with Trude Lash, William Vanden Heuvel and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. On Howe’s role, see also
The Autobiography of ER,
pp. 123–24, and Blanche Wiesen Cook,
Eleanor Roosevelt,
vol. 1, pp. 282–85.

“Dearest Honey …” Ward,
A First Class Temperament,
p. 565.

“To tell the truth …” Roosevelt,
This I Remember,
p. 25.

“He was still pretty sick …” Frances Perkins Oral History, Columbia University.

“Mama made up her mind …”
The Autobiography of ER,
p. 117, and
The FDR Memoirs
by Bernard Asbell, p. 235. Also, Roosevelt,
This Is My Story,
p. 336.

“[Politics] was a growing bond …” Anna Roosevelt Halsted, Oral History.

“[Franklin] came to admire …” Goodwin,
No Ordinary Time,
p. 118.

A wife’s job …
Good Housekeeping,
August 1930.

“I was trying to read to the two youngest …”
The Autobiography of ER,
p. 119.

“I was beginning to find the political contacts …”
This Is My Story,
p. 122.

“All the delegates to the national convention …” Frances Perkins Oral History.

“My Missus and some of her female …” Lash,
Eleanor and Franklin,
p. 304.

“The demand for Mr. Roosevelt …” Ibid., p. 317.

“I never did a thing to ask him …” Ibid., p. 318.

“Now that my husband is actually back …” Ibid., p. 320.

“Walking was so difficult …” Ibid., p. 56.

There is little agreement among … Elliott Roosevelt and Anna Roosevelt Oral Histories, as well as Goodwin’s
No Ordinary Time,
pp. 119–22, and Streitmatter’s
Empty Without You,
pp. 335–36,
The Autobiography of ER,
pp. 111–12,
This I Remember,
pp. 29, 114 and 169–70. Asbell,
The FDR Memoirs,
pp. 233–38. See also H. C. Gallagher’s
Splendid Deception,
(New York: Dodd, Mead, 1985), pp. 134–41. Also, author’s interview with Trude Lash.

Eleanor’s letters to Joe Lash are found in Joseph P. Lash’s
A World of Love: Eleanor Roosevelt and Her Friends
(New York: Doubleday, 1984) and
Love, Eleanor: Eleanor Roosevelt and Her Friends
(New York: Doubleday, 1982).

FDR’s polio, Lash,
Eleanor and Franklin,
p. 424, and Hugh Gregory Gallagher,
FDR’s Splendid Deception,
(New York: Dodd, Mead, 1985), p. 120.

“Did my Eleanor relate …”
Roosevelt,
My Day,
p. 41.

She asked her husband for a specific … Roosevelt,
This I Remember,
p. 76.

Eleanor found emotional sustenance … See Streitmatter,
Empty Without You.

From the minute Eleanor … See Irwin Hoover,
Forty Two Years in the White House
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1934), p. 225.

“My first act …” Roosevelt,
This I Remember,
p. 164.

Life in the Roosevelt White House is based on Martha Gellhorn’s Oral History, Goodwin’s
No Ordinary Time
and Lash’s
Eleanor and Franklin.

It is clear from their choice of companions … from Anna Roosevelt Halsted’s Oral History.

FDR liked his women pliant … author’s interview with Trude Lash, and Lash,
Eleanor and Franklin,
p. 679.

“You don’t sleep with someone …” Trude Lash to author.

“I realize more and more that FDR …” Lash,
Love, Eleanor,
p. 242.

“Last night …” Streitmatter,
Empty Without You,
p. 218.

“I’ve never known a man …”
The Autobiography of ER,
p. 159.

“Don’t upset yourself …” Elliott Roosevelt and James Brough,
Mother R—

Eleanor Roosevelt’s Untold Story
(New York: Putnam, 1977), p. 110.

“The bond of their shared history was strong …” Roosevelt,
My Day,
p. 44.

“Dearest Babs …” FDR letters at FDR Library.

   71 Roosevelt … master of compartmentalization … Oral Histories of Anna Roosevelt Halsted, James Roosevelt and Marquis Childs, and author’s interviews with Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., and Trude Lash. For more on the “two-camp” White House see Martha Gellhorn Oral History and
My Roosevelt Years
by Norman M. Littell (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1987), p. 23.

71–3 “Of what was inside him … Sis, you see about this …” James Roosevelt, Anna Roosevelt Halsted, Elliott Roosevelt Oral Histories.

Like other wives of charismatic leaders … author’s interview with Trude Lash.

On the eve of FDR’s first fireside chat … Roosevelt,
My Day,
p. 85.

“To the prisoners of newspapers …” Roosevelt,
My Day,
p. 80.

“The unemployed are not a strange …” Allida M. Black,
Casting Her Own Shadow
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), p. 29.

“I warned you …” David Burnham,
Above the Law
(New York: Scribner’s, 1996), p. 271.

For Eleanor’s role at the convention, see Roosevelt,
This I Remember,
pp. 215–18, and Goodwin,
No Ordinary Time,
pp. 110–36, and press reports from July 19, 1940.

“I was conscious of the fact that because I saw …” Roosevelt,
My Day,
p. 215.

Winston Churchill’s letter to his wife is from
Winston and Clementine: The Personal Letters of the Churchills,
edited by Mary Soames (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999), p. 483.

Eleanor’s letter to her daughter, Anna, is reprinted in Asbell,
Mother and Daughter,
p. 145.

“Hustle did you say …” November 18, 1942,
London Daily Mail.

A classic Eleanor-Franklin clash … “My Day,” August 13, 1943; Lash,
Eleanor and Franklin,
p. 216: Goodwin,
No Ordinary Time,
p. 174.

After forty years … based on Ferrell’s
The Dying President; Closest Companion
by Geoffrey C. Ward; and Jim Bishop
FDR’s Last Year
(New York: Morrow, 1974). Also, Anna Roosevelt Halsted Oral History.

Though unwilling to face up to … Lash,
A World of Love,
p. 146.

“All right, Franklin …” Chester Bowles Oral History.

Edith Wilson, who knew something … Frances Perkins Oral History.

“He might have been happier …” Roosevelt,
This I Remember,
pp. 349–51.

“We never talked about this …” author’s conversation with Winthrop Rutherfurd III.

The core of this chapter is based on Harry Truman’s letters to Bess, which are found in
Dear Bess: The Letters from Harry to Bess Truman 1910–1959,
edited by Robert H. Ferrell (New York: Norton, 1983);
Where the Buck Stops: The Personal and Private Writings of Harry S. Truman,
edited by Margaret Truman (New York: Warner Books, 1989); and
Memoirs of Harry S. Truman
(New York: Doubleday, 1956). Also, the author’s interviews with Margaret Truman Daniel and Clark Clifford and former White House chief usher Rex Scouten. The following secondary sources helped fill in the background of the Trumans’ story: David McCullough’s
Truman
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992);
Conflict and Crisis
by Robert J. Donovan (New York: Norton, 1977), and
Tumultuous Years: The Presidency of Harry S. Truman 1949–1953,
also by Donovan (New York: Norton, 1982);
Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman
by Alonzo L. Hamby (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1905);
Bess and Harry: An American Love Story
by Jhan Robbins (New York: Putnam, 1980);
Bess W. Truman
by Margaret Truman (New York: Jove Books/ Macmillan, 1986);
Upstairs at the White House
by J. B. West (New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1973).

“I never saw a human being …” Clark Clifford to the author.

Aboard FDR’s special funeral train … Frances Perkins Oral History.

“A woman’s place in public …” Margaret Truman to author.

“Suppose Miss Lizzie …” David McCullough’s
Truman,
p. 579.

“I agree with you that the D.A.R ….” This letter is reprinted in
Bess W. Truman,
p. 321.

It was more than just midwestern reserve … author’s interview with Margaret Truman.

The story of Truman and the Russian ambassador was related to the author by Clark Clifford.

Bess did not even try to mask … Millicent Fenwick Oral History, Columbia University.

“Bess, think of history …” Margaret Truman to author.

“Because Harry so valued her …” Mary Lasker Oral History, Columbia University.

“Though Bess hated life in the …” Clark Clifford to author.

“She advised that he fire FDR’s …” Clark Clifford to the author.

“The three of us had been …” Robbins,
Bess and Harry,
p. 83.

Bess Truman never held a single news conference … Margaret Truman to author.

“Harry and I have been sweethearts …” Margaret Truman to author.

I am indebted to a great many people for this chapter: Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Lady Bird Johnson, Benjamin Bradlee, Theodore Sorensen, Richard Reeves, Paul Fay, Jane Stanton Hitchcock, Lisa Drew, Linda Bird Francke, Ambassador Robin Duke, Kitty Hart, George Crile, Clark Clifford, Rex Scouten, William J. Vanden Heuvel and Joe Armstrong all contributed their personal memories of John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. There are a great many serious and not so serious works on the subject of the Kennedys. My job, as well as that of all future Kennedy scholars, has been made considerably easier by the work of Carl Anthony Sferrzza, whose collection of quotes from Kennedy friends and family,
As We Remember Her
(New York: HarperCollins, 1997) was an invaluable source for this chapter. The John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library at Harvard University provided Oral Histories and correspondence and I thank them for their cooperation. See additional sources on pp. 367–68.

“I know my husband was devoted to me …” Oral History reprinted in Sferrzza,
As We Remember Her,
p. 189.

“Since Jack is such a violently independent …” Ibid., p. 78.

“I only care for the lonely sea …” Ibid., p. 7.

“I really can’t understand why …” Kathleen Kennedy’s letter to her brother Jack is reprinted in
The Search for JFK
by Joan and Clay Blair, Jr. (New York: Putnam, 1976), p. 281.

109 “She knew instantly …” Sferrzza,
As We Remember Her.

“He found his true love too late …” Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., to author.

“What do you want to talk to my wife about? …” Laura Berquist Knebel Oral History, JFK Library.

“It was difficult …” Sferrzza,
As We Remember Her,
p. 101.

The story of JFK’s relationship to Pam Turnure was related to the author by Clark Clifford.

“I could never describe to you …” Jackie’s letter to Richard Nixon is from the JFK Library.

“She’s read every book …” Sferrzza,
As We Remember Her,
p. 115.

turn on the light …
A Hero for Our Time,
Ralph G. Martin (New York: Macmillan, 1983), p. 9.

“I wonder how it is with you, Harold …” Alistair Horne,
Harold Macmillan,
vol. 2:
1957–1986
(New York: Viking Press, 1989), p. 290.

“I could not guess how she felt …” Rex Scouten to the author.

“The one thing that happens to the President …” Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Oral History at JFK Library and Sferrzza,
As We Remember Her,
p. 182.

“I think you are rather like me …” Mary Van Rensselaer Thayer,
Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1967), p. 33.

The punches never stopped … author’s interview with Raymond Lamontagne.

“I don’t think he understood women …” author’s interview with Ben Bradlee.

“I have the same feelings about career women that you do …” William Lawrence Oral History, JFK Library.

“I don’t
have to
do anything …” author’s interview with Robin Duke.

I’m not going to go down in the coal mines … August Heckscher Oral History, JFK Library.

“I want to make this into a grand house …” J. B. West,
Upstairs at the White House
(New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1973), p. 240.

“You know I’ve never seen so many happy artists …” Leonard Bernstein Oral History, JFK Library.

Jackie’s letter to Kay Halle was made available to the author by Halle’s nephew, George Crile.

“If Jackie said he had to go …” William Walton Oral History, JFK Library.

“The Kennedys shared a love of high-level …” Laura Knebel Berquist Oral History, JFK Library.

“Before the Bay of Pigs …” Charles Spalding Oral History, JFK Library.