Empty Without You: The Intimate Letters Of Eleanor Roosevelt And Lorena HickokThe relationship between Eleanor Roosevelt and Associated Press reporter Lorena Hickok has sparked vociferous debate ever since 1978, when archivists at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library discovered eighteen boxes filled with letters the two women exchanged during their thirty-year friendship. But until now we have been offered only the odd quotation or excerpt from their voluminous correspondence. In Empty Without You, journalist and historian Rodger Streitmatter has transcribed and annotated 300 letters that shed new light on the legendary, passionate, and intense bond between these extraordinary women. Written with the candor and introspection of a private diary, the letters expose the most private thoughts, feelings, and motivations of their authors and allow us to assess the full dimensions of a remarkable friendship. From the day Eleanor moved into the White House and installed Lorena in a bedroom just a few feet from her own, each woman virtually lived for the other. When Lorena was away, Eleanor kissed her picture of "dearest Hick" every night before going to bed, while Lorena marked the days off her calendar in anticipation of their next meeting. In the summer of 1933, Eleanor and Lorena took a three-week road trip together, often traveling incognito. The friends even discussed a future in which they would share a home and blend their separate lives into one. Perhaps as valuable as these intimations of a love affair are the glimpses this collection offers of an Eleanor Roosevelt strikingly different from the icon she has become. Although the figure who emerges in these pages is as determined and politically adept as the woman we know, she is also surprisingly sarcastic and funny, tender and vulnerable, and even judgmental and petty -- all less public but no less important attributes of our most beloved first lady. |
Other editions - View all
Empty Without You: The Intimate Letters of Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok Eleanor Roosevelt,Lorena A. Hickok No preview available - 1998 |
Empty Without You: The Intimate Letters Of Eleanor Roosevelt And Lorena Hickok Rodger Streitmatter No preview available - 2000 |
Common terms and phrases
Anna campaign Campobello Island Christmas City Hick Dearest Hick Democratic National Committee Devotedly dinner Eleanor and Lorena Eleanor Roosevelt Eleanor to Lorena Eleanor wrote Elliott ER’s FDR’s feel Franklin glad happy Harry Hopkins Hick’s Hickok hope Hotel House Washington Dearest House Washington Hick Hyde Park I’ve Isabella Selmes Greenway John Boettiger lady’s last night Little House Moriches living Lorena Hickok Lorena wrote Louis love dear lunch Marion Marion Dickerman Missy LeHand morning never newspaper nice November political president president’s press conference relationship relief Reluctant First Lady reporter sleep sorry spend stay talk things to-day to-gether to-morrow to-night told Tommy trip Val-Kill Cottage Dearest Val-Kill Cottage Hick Warm Springs Washington Hick darling Washington Hick dearest week weekend White House Washington wife woman women world of love World’s Fair writing Xmas York City York World’s Fair
Popular passages
Page 52 - I've been trying today to bring back your face— to remember just how you look. Funny how even the dearest face will fade away in time. Most clearly I remember your eyes, with a kind of teasing smile in them, and the feeling of that soft spot just northeast of the corner of your mouth against my lips.
Page 19 - Oh! I want to put my arms around you. I ache to hold you close. Your ring is a great comfort. I look at it and think she does love me or I wouldn't be wearing it.
Page ix - At any rate, when a subject is highly controversial— and any question about sex is that— one cannot hope to tell the truth. One can only show how one came to hold whatever opinion one does hold.
Page 16 - I felt a little as though a part of me was leaving tonight. You have grown so much to be a part of my life that it is empty without you even though I'm busy every minute.
Page 113 - Authority— a corporation clothed with the power of government but possessed of the flexibility and initiative of a private enterprise. It should be charged with the broadest duty of planning for the proper use, conservation and development of the natural resources of the Tennessee River drainage basin and its adjoining territory for the general social and economic welfare of the nation.
Page 25 - I couldn't bear to think of you crying yourself to sleep. Oh! how I wanted to put my arms around you in reality instead of in spirit.
Page 54 - I want to put my arms around you, and kiss you at the corner of your mouth. And in a little more than a week now — I shall!
Page 17 - I couldn't say je t'aime et je t'adore as I longed to do but always remember I am saying it, that I go to sleep thinking of you.