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President Roosevelt, Mrs. Rutherfurd, and the Other Remarkable Women in His Life
Random House
May 2008
On Sale: April 29, 2008
Featuring: Franklin Delano Roosevelt
464 pages ISBN: 1400064422 EAN: 9781400064427 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Biography
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was arguably the greatest figure
of the twentieth century. While FDR’s official circle was
predominantly male, it was his relationships with
women–particularly with Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd–that most
vividly bring to light the human being beneath this towering
statesman. It is no coincidence that Rutherfurd was with
Roosevelt the day he died in Warm Springs, Georgia, along
with two other close women companions. In Franklin and
Lucy, acclaimed author and historian Joseph E. Persico
explores FDR’s romance with Lucy Rutherfurd, which was far
deeper and lasted much longer than was previously
acknowledged. Persico’s provocative conclusions about their
relationship are informed by a revealing range of sources,
including never-before-published letters and documents from
Lucy Rutherfurd’s estate that attest to the intensity and
scope of the affair.
FDR’s connection with Lucy also
creates an opportunity for Persico to take a more
penetrating look at the other women in FDR’s life. We come
to see more clearly how FDR’s infidelity as a husband
contributed to Eleanor’s eventual transformation from a
repressed Victorian to perhaps the greatest American woman
of her century; how the shaping hand of FDR’s strong-willed
mother helped to imbue him with the resolve to overcome
personal and public adversity throughout his life; and how
other women around FDR, including his “surrogate spouse,”
Missy LeHand, and his close confidante, the obscure Margaret
“Daisy” Suckley, completed the world that he inhabited.
Franklin and Lucy is an extraordinary look at
the private life of a leader who continues to fascinate
scholars and the general public alike. In focusing on Lucy
Rutherfurd and the myriad women who mattered to Roosevelt,
Persico paints a more intimate portrait than we have
heretofore had of this enigmatic giant of American history.
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