FIRST LADY
Reely, Mary Katherine
First Lady THIS I REMEMBER, by Eleanor Roosevelt. Harper. 387 pp. $4.50. Reviewed by Mary Katharine Reely Mrs. Roosevelt ELEANOR Roosevelt says that as she began this book it seemed "an...
...In a sense, this is true, but only partially true, and the many readers whose interest is still in Mrs...
...A man like my husband, who was particularly susceptible to people, took color from whomever he was with, giving to each one something different of himself...
...I have said that the Albany years served as a proving ground...
...This is true of personnel as well as of policy, and Mrs...
...It was just the kind of thing this simple, warmhearted, and truly great lady would have done...
...Roosevelt grows more guarded...
...And, as she is saying her farewells, there is a final sentence, "I was now on my own," which may be taken both as valedictory and promise...
...Roosevelt ELEANOR Roosevelt says that as she began this book it seemed "an infinitely more difficult task than the previous volume of my autobiography...
...Roosevelt never felt at home in the White House and she left it without regret...
...Roosevelt is frank, sometimes more than frank, in dealing with the men who were her husband's early associates...
...For, as she goes on to say, it can no longer be only her autobiography, since most people will be primarily interested in what she has to tell of her husband...
...Those Albany years were plainly a proving ground for what was to follow...
...Her far-flung activities were widely publicized and are well known...
...After the term in Albany, the narrative follows a comparatively straight course, broken at times with such a delightful personal chapter as the one in which Mrs...
...It was almost," she says, "as if I had erected a person outside myself who was the President's wife...
...Once the generation that came under the magic spell has passed from the scene, there will be questions which sentences like the following should go far toward answering: "Franklin had a gift of being able to draw out the people whom he wished to draw out and to silence those with whom he was bored— and in both cases the people were greatly charmed...
...Often people have told me they were misled by Franklin...
...With Chapters 4 and 5, covering the political campaign of 1928 and the four-year term in Albany as governor, the book really gets under way...
...In fact, she admits having asked not to be told any secrets...
...Perhaps the book adds little here to what we already know, although it is clear that her husband depended on her and valued the reports she brought back from her travels...
...But, in that it is a record of her "official" life through critical years, it becomes more than a personal biography, and I have a feeling that it will be mulled over in all seriousness by the historian of the future...
...It would not be going too far to say that what later came to be referred to as the Welfare State had its inception here —and also that other trend which has given rise to concern, the encroachment of the executive on the other two branches of government...
...Then comes the first White House year, 1933, recalling, as it must even to those who parted from him later, those heady days when CCC was springing up on the one hand, NYA on the other...
...In Harry Hopkins," she says, "my husband found some of the companionship and loyalty Louis had given him, but not the political wisdom and careful analysis of each situation...
...She confirms the often-repeated story of the telephone call to a girl in one of the government offices to relay a message from her sweetheart out in the South Pacific...
...when Homestead Projects were getting under way, and a spirit of youth and hope prevailed everywhere With the beginning of the war...
...The misunderstanding not only arose from his dislike of being disagreeable, but from the interest he always had in somebody else's point of view and his willingness to listen to it...
...This is still very much her book, a continuation of This Is My Story...
...Roosevelt learns to be a President's wife...
...The one outstanding exception of an associate who had her wholehearted approval and affection was Louis Howe, whose death came as a personal grief as well as a loss to the Administration...
...There are outspoken appraisals of both Al Smith and Jim Farley—and, later, Harry Hopkins...
...Roosevelt herself need not turn away...
...Three general chapters form a link with This Is My Story...
Vol. 14 • January 1950 • No. 1
