by James Tobin
Another important source was newspapers, especially for the campaigns in 1928 and 1932. Some major papers, like the New York Times and the Washington Post, make their old editions available online. A great many other stories would be very hard to find were it not for the voluminous scrapbooks of press clippings that FDR’s staff maintained. These, too, are at the FDR Library.
Books by members of FDR’s family and close associates were invaluable. The most important for telling the polio story were Frances Perkins, The Roosevelt I Knew (1946); Samuel Rosenman, Working With Roosevelt (1952); Eleanor Roosevelt’s two memoirs, This Is My Story (1939) and This I Remember (1949); and James Farley, Behind the Ballots (1938). James and Elliott Roosevelt both wrote two books about their parents. Elliott’s, especially, raise doubts about the reliability of a grown child remembering early years with parents. In 1949, Anna Roosevelt Halsted published a valuable series of magazine articles titled “My Life With FDR” in a magazine she helped to create, The Woman. It’s a shame Anna never wrote a full memoir, as she seems to have known her father the best of all the children. Two memoirs by Anna’s son, Curtis Roosevelt, Too Close to the Sun (2008) and Upstairs at the Roosevelts’ (2017), give fascinating glimpses of the family’s private life. As a teenager, Curtis lived with his mother and grandparents in the White House for much of World War II, and his account of FDR’s dealings with disability are detailed and insightful. (I gained a great deal from a long interview with Mr. Roosevelt, whose voice sounded astonishingly like FDR’s. He died in 2016.)
Several books by contemporary reporters fill in important details, including John Gunther, Roosevelt in Retrospect: A Profile in History (1950), which remains one of the best sources on FDR’s many-faceted life; Ernest Lindley, Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Career in Progressive Democracy (rev. ed., 1934)—Lindley covered FDR’s early campaigns and knew him well; and Earle Looker, This Man Roosevelt (1932). Looker was the writer hired by the Roosevelt campaign to write a magazine story about FDR’s health. That casts a shadow on his reliability, but the book is an important document of the campaign, at least.
Many general biographies of FDR have been published, of course, but most move quickly through the polio story. The exception is Geoffrey C. Ward’s two-volume biography, which takes FDR from his birth to 1928, with a great deal of information about his parents and ancestors—Before the Trumpet: Young Franklin Roosevelt, 1882–1905 (1985) and A First-Class Temperament: The Emergence of Franklin Roosevelt, 1905–1928 (1989). Ward’s account is deep and rich, and his coverage of FDR’s struggle with polio is based in part on his interviews with people who worked with FDR at Warm Springs. Other biographies I relied on included James MacGregor Burns’s two volumes, especially Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox (1956); Frank Freidel, Franklin D. Roosevelt: The Ordeal (1954), the second volume of Freidel’s five; Rexford G. Tugwell, The Democratic Roosevelt (1957); and Joseph P. Lash, Eleanor and Franklin (1971). I used the excellent biographies of FDR’s closest aides during the period covered: Alfred B. Rollins, Roosevelt and Howe (1962); and Kathryn Smith, The Gatekeeper: Missy LeHand, FDR, and the Untold Story of the Partnership That Defined a Presidency (2016).
Readers will gain a deeper understanding of FDR’s life in the context of Hyde Park from F. Kennon Moody’s excellent account, FDR and His Hudson Valley Neighbors (2013).
Besides The Man He Became, there are five other books, all of them useful, about Roosevelt’s experience with polio. They are: Turnley Walker, Roosevelt and the Warm Springs Story (1953); Jean Gould, A Good Fight (1960); Theo Lippmann Jr., The Squire of Warm Springs: FDR in Georgia, 1924–1945 (1977); Richard Thayer Goldberg, The Making of Franklin D. Roosevelt: Triumph Over Disability (1981); and Hugh Gregory Gallagher, FDR’s Splendid Deception (1985). Another good source for the Warm Springs story, with many photographs, is Kaye Lanning Minchew, A President in Our Midst: Franklin Delano Roosevelt in Georgia (2016).
Overviews of all aspects of FDR’s life appear in Otis L. Graham Jr. and Meghan Robinson Wander, eds., Franklin D. Roosevelt, His Life and Times: An Encyclopedic View (1985).
The reader knows how much I relied on the observations of the Roosevelts’ friend Frances Perkins, who knew FDR well from the beginning of his career in politics and served as secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor throughout his terms as president. She recounts her memories and her ideas about FDR not only in The Roosevelt I Knew but also in the interviews she gave to the Columbia University Center for Oral History Research. These deeply detailed and fascinating interviews, which cover Perkins’s entire life and career, can be heard online in their entirety at the center’s website.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Teaching the craft of telling true stories has forced me to think harder about how stories work. Talking about the craft with students as they try it themselves is a pleasure. So I’m grateful to my students at Miami University for our work together.
Two of those students, now on their way to illustrious careers, lent time and talent to this project. Megan Zahneis provided important research on the 1932 campaign and on the debate over the Roosevelt Memorial. She also shared her reflections on the experience of disability, which have influenced my interpretation of FDR at numerous points. Samantha Brunn gave critical aid with photographs.
No historian can write a page without archivists and librarians, who keep the materials of history alive, organized, and within reach. For this book I’m especially grateful to the archival staff of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. Thanks, too, to Matthew Schaefer of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum.
At Henry Holt and Company, Christy Ottaviano and her colleagues were superb. I’m especially indebted to Christy for her faith in the project, her excellent judgment, and her patience. Thanks, too, to Taylor Pitts and Barbara Bakowski for their thorough and astute copyediting.
At Fletcher & Company, Melissa Chinchillo represented the book with her usual skill and good cheer.
I’m grateful to John U. Bacon, who helped me get it over the finish line.
I’m lucky to belong to a big extended family of book lovers. Thanks to all the Tobins, Kellers, Wilsons, and LaFaves for keeping the torch alive and the business afloat.
But Leesa Erickson Tobin deserves by far the most thanks, for absolutely everything.
INDEX
The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your e-book. Please use the search function on your e-reading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.
Abbott, Greg
Abbott, LeRoy
accessibility, as governor of New York State
activism, Roosevelt, Anna Eleanor, with
adhesions, muscle
Alsop, Joseph (cousin)
American Orthopedic Association
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
aneurysm, death from
anterior horn cells
artists
Astor, Vincent
Atlanta Journal-Constitution (newspaper)
babies
immune system of
infant mortality
polio reducing adults to
Bad Nauheim, Germany
bank system
Barrett, Dr.
“beneath one’s dignity” (infra dignitatem)
Bennet, Eben Homer
Bidou, Gabriel
biographies, writing
Black, Van Lear
Bloch, Maurice
bones, muscles and
Botts, Fred
Boy Scouts
braces
innovations
as muscle substitutes
spring-loaded
brain
nervous system and
signals with polio
Buffalo News (newspaper)
Byrd, Harry F.
campaign trail, FDR on
governorship of New York State
&
nbsp; presidential race
Campobello Island
canals, waterways
Cathedral of Saint John the Divine
cells
babies and immune
horn
lymphocytes or immune
muscle
poliomyelitis and
Chicago Tribune (newspaper)
children
Boy Scouts
disabled
with discipline
health of
immune cells of babies
infant mortality
labor laws and
polio and
China
A Christmas Carol (Dickens)
Civil War
Civilian Conservation Corps
Cleland, Max
Cleveland, Grover
Columbia University
“consumption” (tuberculosis)
contractures, in muscles
Coolidge, Calvin
Corbett, D. Lawson
corrective walking
Courier-Journal (newspaper)
Cox, James Middleton
“cripple” (crawl)
connotations
as pejorative
Cross, Guernsey
crutches
falling on
standing with
walking with
Curtis, Egbert “Curt”
Dall, Curtis
Daniels, Josephus
Davis, John W.
D-Day (1944)
deep-sea fishing
Delano, Frederic (uncle)
with advice
with physician referral
Delano, Warren, Jr. (grandfather)
Democratic National Convention (DNC) (1924)
FDR with speech at
media and
in New York City
preparing for
Democratic National Convention (DNC) (1928)
DePew, Louis
Dickens, Charles
Dickerman, Marion
disabilities
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
FDR and portrayal of
disabled people
DNC. See Democratic National Convention
Dowdell’s Knob, Georgia
Draper, George
on FDR in politics
on muscle atrophy
on muscle strength
with polio and FDR
rehabilitation and
driving, FDR and
Duffy, Yvonne
economy
Great Depression and
unemployment and
voters with
education
electric power
Emmet, Marvin & Roosevelt
epidemic, polio (1916)
Episcopalians
Erie Canal
Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics and at Home (Post)
Evening Post (newspaper)
falls, accidental
family life, FDR and
adjustments to
on Campobello Island
conflict
with daughter, marriage of
at Hyde Park
with polio as focus
romantic affair and
as support system
Farley, “Big” Jim
farmers
FDR. See Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Fidelity & Deposit Company
Finch, Edward R.
Finn, Daniel
fires
forest
Ku Klux Klan with
Triangle Shirtwaist factory
fireside chats
Florida Keys
injury and fall at
rehabilitation in
sunlight, polio and
Flynn, Ed
food prices
Ford, Edsel
Ford, Henry
Ford Model T
forest fires
France
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial Commission
Garner, John Nance
Gennerich, Gus
Georgia Warm Springs Foundation. See also Warm Springs, Georgia
Germany
governorship, of New York State
with accessibility
calls to run for
campaign trail
with doubts about FDR and fitness for
with doubts about fitness, FDR response
election results
with fireside chats
legacy
mobility and
with nomination accepted
polio and
with political strategy
reelection
religion and
Roosevelt, Anna Eleanor, and
speeches for
with tour by canal
wheel chair and
Grayson, Cary
Great Depression
Gregory, Cleburne
Groton School
Guffey, Joseph
Hague, Frank
Hall, Anna Rebecca
Hamburger, Philip
Hamlin, Bertie Pruyn
Harding, Warren G.
Harvard College, Porcellian social club at
Hasbrouck, Paul
health, of children
Heart, William Randolph
Henley, William Ernest
Hershheimer, Lambert
Hitler, Adolf
homelessness
Hoover, Herbert
administration of
FDR and
Great Depression and
legacy
popularity of
Smith and
Hoover, Mrs.
Hooverville settlements
horn cells
House of Representatives, US
Howe, Grace
Howe, Louis
as adviser
Campobello Island and
FDR, paralysis and
FDR, presidential nomination and
with FDR and governorship of New York State
Fidelity & Deposit Company and
polio, FDR and
with political strategies for FDR
with rehabilitation
Hubbard, Leroy
Hudson, Mary
human waste, polio and
Hundred Days, FDR and
Hyde Park
immigrants
immune system
cells, lymphocytes and
polio, babies and
polio and
toilets, sewers and
inauguration, of FDR
infantile paralysis. See also poliomyelitis
infant mortality rate
infants
infra dignitatem (“beneath one’s dignity”)
“Invictus” (Henley)
Irish Americans
Japan
Jefferson, Thomas
Jews
Johnson, James
Jones, LeRoy
Joseph, Louis
Keen, William Williams
Keyes, Henry Wilder
Krida, Arthur
Ku Klux Klan
labor
laws
unemployment
unions
wages
Lake, Kathleen
Lawrence, John
laws
LeHand, Marguerite “Missy”
with FDR and governorship of New York State
with FDR and polio
in Florida Keys
illness and
moral support from
alleged romantic affair with FDR
as secretary to FDR
Lehman, Herbert
Liberty (magazine)
Lincoln, Abraham
Longmore, Paul K.
Looker, Earle
Los Angeles Times (newspaper)
Lovett, Robert
braces and
influence of
legacy
on muscle atrophy
muscle strength and
with polio diagnos
is
with polio prognosis
rehabilitation and
water exercises and
Loyless, Tom
lymphocytes
Lynch, Tom
MacKaye, Milton
MacPherson, Leighton
Mahoney, Helena T.
corrective walking with
with FDR and change in mindset
Lovett and
Manning, William Thomas
Marion, Massachusetts
with alternative treatment
daily regimen at
“walking” at
marriage
Marvin, Langdon
massages, rehabilitation and
McAdoo, William Gibbs
McDonald, William (Mrs.)
McDonald, William “Billie”
McDuffie, Irvin
McKinley, William
media. See also specific newspapers
on DNC speech
with FDR and disability, portrayal of
with FDR and polio news
FDR in
with FDR in politics, doubts about
polio in
with Smith, criticism of
Warm Springs, Georgia, in
Mellett, Lowell
memorial, to FDR
Meriwether Inn. See also Warm Springs, Georgia
purchases for
rehabilitation of
in rundown condition
middle class, polio and
Miller, Earl
mineral springs
mobility, FDR and
driving
as governor of New York State
improvements
problems with
with wheel chair
Mormons
Moskowitz, Belle
Murphy, “Silent Charlie”
muscles
adhesions
atrophy with paralysis
bones and
braces as substitutes for
cells
contractures in
isolating
mass
strength
National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis
national parks
nervous system
New Deal
New York City
accidental fall in
DNC in
police reform in
residence in
Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire in
New York State. See also governorship, of New York State
New York Sun (newspaper)
