NR
New Republic
NYHT
New York Herald Tribune
NYT
New York Times
OH
Oral History
PC
Pittsburgh Courier
SEP
Saturday Evening Post
TIMS
This Is My Story by Eleanor Roosevelt
TIR
This I Remember by Eleanor Roosevelt
TP
Times Picayune, New Orleans, Louisiana
WP
Washington Post
FDRL
Franklin D. Roosevelt Library
OF
Office File, Franklin D. Roosevelt Papers
PPF
President’s Personal File, Franklin D. Roosevelt Papers
PSF
President’s Secretary’s File, Franklin D. Roosevelt Papers
PREFACE
9 living arrangements at the White House: William Seale, The President’s House: A History (1986), vol. II, pp. 926-28.
10 he could truly see . . .: George Martin, Madame Secretary: Frances Perkins (1976), p. 435.
11 “the most influential woman . . .”: Joan Hoff-Wilson and Marjorie Lightman, eds., Without Precedent: The Life and Career of Eleanor Roosevelt (1984), p. 11.
11 “this is no ordinary time . . .”: WP, July 19, 1940, p. 1.
CHAPTER ONE: “The Decisive Hour Has Come”
13 On nights filled with tension: interview with Betsey Whitney.
14 John Cudahy call: WP, May 10, 1940, p. 1.
14 German planes in the air: Jay Pierpont Moffat, The Moffat Papers (1956), p. 307.
14 “Pa” Watson: NYT, July 23, 1939, sect. VI, p. 6.
14 Stunned Belgians: WP, May 10, 1940, p. 1.
14 A thirteen-year-old: Time, May 20, 1940, p. 18.
14 Bombs were also falling: Newsweek, May 20, 1940, p. 18.
14 freeze all assets: WP, May 10, 1940, pp. 1, 3.
15 had received “proof”: NYT, May 10, 1940, p. 1.
15 “The decisive hour . . .”: Time, May 20, 1940, p. 22.
15 “in times of crisis . . .”: Adolf Berle quoted in Moffat, Papers, p. 307.
15 Irvin McDuffie: obituary, NYT, Jan. 31, 1946, p. 28.
15 “he couldn’t help . . .”: ER interview, Graff Papers, FDRL.
15 straightened his legs: Hugh Gregory Gallagher, FDR’s Splendid Deception (1985), p. 163.
15 Description of bedroom: Collier’s, Sept. 14, 1946, pp. 96-97.
15 Eleanor basket: NYT, July 5, 1936, sect. IV, p. 7.
15 “Like every room . . .”: Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Age of Roosevelt, vol. II, The Coming of the New Deal (1958), p. 511.
16 his aunt Laura: Geoffrey C. Ward, Before the Trumpet (1985), pp. 117-18.
16 “We assured him . . .”: James Roosevelt, My Parents: A Differing View (1976), p. 81.
16 “very active . . .”: AH, OH, Columbia University.
16 “a wonderful playmate . . .”: AH interview, Graff Papers, FDRL.
16 “the handsomest . . .”: interview with James Roosevelt.
16 “trial by fire”: Joseph P. Lash, Eleanor and Franklin (1971), p. 267.
16 “There had been a plowing . . .”: Collier’s, Aug. 24, 1946, p. 12.
17 “his vital links . . .”: Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Age of Roosevelt, vol. I, The Crisis of the Old Order (1957), p. 407.
17 “Anyone who has gone . . .”: Lash, Eleanor and Franklin, p. 424.
17 “He was smiling . . .”: interview with Eliot Janeway.
17 FDR’s morning routine: New Yorker, June 16, 1934, pp. 24–25.
18 ER’s visit to the city: MD, May 9–11, 1940.
18 honored by The Nation: NYT, May 2, 1940, p. 18.
18 “distinguished service . . .”: Nation, May 18, 1940, p. 623.
18 “What is an institution? . . .”: ibid.
18 “My dear, I don’t care . . .”: NYT, May 2, 1940, p. 18.
19 “It never seems . . .”: MD, May 3, 1940.
19 “I will do my best . . .”: NYT, May 2, 1940, p. 18.
19 “Mrs. Roosevelt’s incessant . . .”: Fortune, May 1940, p. 160.
19 Lucy Mercer: Bernard Asbell, The FDR Memoirs (1973), pp. 228–33.
19 “the bottom dropped . . .”: Joseph P. Lash, Love, Eleanor (1982), p. 66.
19 Story of SDR and divorce: ibid., pp. 66–71: James Roosevelt, My Parents, pp. 99–102; AH, unpublished article, box 84, Halsted Papers, FDRL.
20 “an ordeal to be borne”: Asbell, FDR Memoirs, p. 222.
20 “an exaggerated idea . . .”: Geoffrey C. Ward, A First-Class Temperament (1989), p. 17.
20 “There’s no doubt . . .”: Raymond Moley, The First New Deal (1966), pp. 273–75.
20 “When Missy gave . . .”: Lillian Rogers Parks, The Roosevelts: A Family in Turmoil (1981), p. 177.
20 “she had a certain class . . .”: Asbell, FDR Memoirs, p. 247.
21 “The first thing . . .”: NYT, June 10, 1934, sect. VI, p. 9.
21 “Albany was the hardest . . .”: SEP, Jan. 8, 1938, p. 60.
21 “In terms of companionship . . .”: interview with Eliot Janeway.
22 poked his head: SEP, Jan. 8, 1938, p. 60.
22 George Marshall: Time, July 29, 1940, pp. 30–33.
22 “Don’t you think so . . .”: Leonard Mosley, Marshall: A Hero for Our Times (1982), pp. 121–22.
22 pre-World War II army: R. Elberton Smith, The Army and Economic Mobilization (1959), pp. 24–35, 119–26.
22 “It’s a terrible thing . . .”: Samuel I. Rosenman, Working with Roosevelt (1952), p. 167.
23 136 divisions: Erwin Rommel, The Rommel Papers (1953), p. 3.
23 U.S. merely five divisions: memo, Col. J. H. Burns, Ordnance Dept. Executive, to Assist. Sec. of War, May 10, 1940, Morgenthau Papers, FDRL.
23 almost no munitions industry: Charles J. Hitch, America’s Economic Strength (1941), p. 67.
23 Marshall trying to get Woodring: Richard M. Ketchum, The Borrowed Years, 1938–1941 (1989), pp. 537–38.
23 “His real weakness . . .”: ER interview, Graff Papers, FDRL.
24 “If I were you . . .”: SEP, June 5, 1948, p. 90.
24 Louis Johnson: Ketchum, Borrowed Years, pp. 537–38.
24 Marshall found it incomprehensible: Forrest C. Pogue, George C. Marshall: Ordeal and Hope, 1939–1942 (1966), vol. II, p. 23.
24 “I’m sorry . . .”: ibid., pp. 93–94.
24 “I think he knew exactly . . .”: James Rowe, OH, FDRL.
24 “I never heard him call . . .”: Robert Cutler, No Time for Rest (1966), p. 223.
24 “Informal conversation . . .”: ibid., p. 224.
25 Cudahy wired: Time, May 20, 1940, p. 25.
25 “tangible evidence . . .”: Joseph P. Kennedy to Treasury Dept., May 10, 1940, Morgenthau Papers, FDRL.
25 “After the World War . . .”: Military Establishment Appropriations Bill, statement of Gen. Marshall, April 30, 1940, p. 30.
25 “ . . . a little drawn eyed . . .”: NYHT, May 11, 1940, p. 19.
25 “Glancing around the room . . .”: NYT, Feb. 1, 1942, sect. VI, p. 7.
26 “Like an opera singer . . .”; “all-in”: ibid.
26 “the best newspaperman . . .”: Betty Houchin Winfield, FDR and the News Media (1990), p. 1.
26 On press conferences: John Gunther, Roosevelt in Retrospect (1950), pp. 134–39; Samuel I. and Dorothy Rosenman, Presidential Style (1976), pp. 330–39.
26 bachelor correspondent: Charles Hurd, When the New Deal Was Young and Gay (1965), p. 241.
26 “By the brilliant but simple trick . . .”: Schlesinger, Coming of the New Deal, p. 566.
26 “History will like to say . . .”: NYHT, May 11, 1940, p. 19.
26 “Good morning . . .”: press-conference typescript, collection of speeches, FDRL.
27 “partly in consideration . . .”: NYHT, May 11, 1940, p. 19.
27 Malvina Thompson: Lash, Eleanor and Franklin, p. 315; Minnewa Bell, OH, FDRL.
27 “good Vermont granite . . .”: biographical facts on M. Thompson, LH Papers, FDRL.
27 “who makes life . . .”: NYT, April 13, 1953, p. 27.
27 ER and Tommy traveled: Life, Feb. 4, 1940, p. 70.
27 “will o’ the wisp”: Elliott Roosevelt and James Brough, A Rendezvous with Destiny (1975), p. 71.
28 “It was the best education . . .” . . .“One time . . .”: Alfred Steinberg, Mrs. R (1958), p. 162.
28 “She saw many things . . .”: Frances Perkins interview, Graff Papers, FDRL.
28 “Watch the people’s . . .”: Steinberg, Mrs. R, p. 209.
28 “did not know what . . .”: ibid.
29 ER in Puerto Rico: Ruby Black, ER (1940), p. 296.
29 “I realized that . . .”: NYT, April 22, 1937, p. 24.
29 “Mrs. Roosevelt Spends Night . . .”: William Leuchtenburg, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal (1963), p. 192.
29 “There is something . . .”: MD, May 11 and 13, 1940.
29 Near the Chapel: Choate Catalogue, p. 35.
29 “I wonder that the time . . .”: MD, May 9, 1940.
30 Talking with her young friend: Lash, Eleanor and Franklin, p. 608; NYHT, May 27, 1940, p. 8.
30 Her deepest fear: Lash Diary, May 10, 1940, Lash Papers, FDRL.
30 “How to preserve . . .”: NYT, May 11, 1940, p. 23.
30 president opened: Gunther, Roosevelt in Retrospect, pp. 131–34.
30 Cordell Hull: CB, 1940, pp. 412–15.
30 Belgian gold reserves: memo for Treasury from Butterworth, May 10, 1940, Morgenthau Papers, FDRL.
31 Morgenthau had been huddled: memos of May 10, 1940, activities in Morgenthau Papers, FDRL.
31 “as though she had . . .”: CB, 1940, p. 645.
31 HH: CB, 1941, pp. 405–6.
31 HH in and out of hospitals: interview with Robert Hopkins.
31 “He was to all intents . . .”: Robert E. Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins (1948), p. 10.
31 “an ill-fed horse . . .”: CB, 1941, p. 406.
31 “a very sad dog”: from “Harry Hopkins: At FDR’s Side,” documentary written by Verne Newton, FDRL. Hereafter cited HH documentary, FDRL.
31 “you wouldn’t think . . .”: WP, Oct. 31, 1943, p. 2.
31 “to galvanize . . .”: Marquis Childs, I Write from Washington (1942), p. 170.
32 “only a five or six months . . .”: Harold L. Ickes, The Secret Diaries of Harold L. Ickes, vol. III, The Lowering Clouds, 1939–1941 (1954), p. 175.
32 90 percent of America’s supply: Time, May 20, 1940, p. 73.
32 Reconstruction Finance: Ickes, Secret Diaries, vol. III, p. 175.
32 word came from London: ibid., p. 176.
32 “I welcome it, indeed . . .”: Richard Collier, 1940: The World in Flames (1979), p. 74.
32 Attlee’s blunt reply: ibid., p. 76.
33 “Looking backward . . .”: NYT Magazine, Sept. 14, 1941, p. 5.
33 “Churchill was the best . . .”: Ickes, Secret Diaries, vol. III, p. 175.
33 the two leaders had come to admire: Churchill & Roosevelt: The Complete Correspondence (1984), vol. I, p. 6.
33 “I shall at all times . . .”: ibid., p. 89.
33 second-floor study: William Seale, The President’s House, vol. II (1986), p. 989; Rexford G. Tugwell, The Democratic Roosevelt (1957), p. 301.
34 “invariably got that lived-in . . .”: Frances Perkins, The Roosevelt I Knew (1946), p. 66.
34 The president mixed the drinks: Rosenman, Working with Roosevelt, pp. 150–51.
34 FDR’s storytelling: ibid., p. 152.
34 John Taber story: Time, May 20, 1940, p. 19.
34 “I didn’t realize . . .”: interview with Toi Bachelder.
35 “he would not be surprised . . .”: Ickes Diary, p. 3248, Library of Congress.
35 “Vic and I arriving . . .”: HH to MLH, May 22, 1939, HH Papers, FDRL.
35 “the real purpose . . .”: HH to MLH, Aug. 31, 1939, HH Papers, FDRL.
35 “There is no one here . . .”: Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins, pp. 114–15.
35 “Even the most ardent . . .”: Newsweek, Aug. 12, 1944, p. 16.
35 “should have been off . . .”: Fulton Oursler, Behold This Dreamer! (1964), pp. 424–25.
35 “Gosh, it will be good . . .”: MLH to FDR, Dec. 1936, PPF 3737, FDRL.
36 “She was working away . . .”: interview with Margaret Suckley.
36 “In a funny way . . .”: AB to LH, Dec. 2, 1935, LH Papers, FDRL.
36 “Work had become . . .”: interview with Eleanor Wotkyns.
36 “She could be . . .”: interview with Curtis Dall Roosevelt, son of Anna Roosevelt and Curtis Dall.
36 “If only Mother . . .”: interview with Elliott Roosevelt.
37 “Stay for dinner . . .”: HH documentary, FDRL; David E. Lilienthal, The Journal of David E. Lilienthal, vol. 1 (1964), pp. 169–70.
37 “There was a temperamental . . .”: Perkins quoted in Louis W. Koenig, The Invisible Presidency (1960), p. 317.
37 “feminine sensitivity”: Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins, p. 2.
37 borrowed a pair of pajamas: New Yorker, Aug. 7, 1941, p. 26.
37 “It was Harry . . .”: Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins, p. 173.
37 Helen Douglas story: interview with Billy Wilder.
37 “We come here tonight . . .”: text of speech, NYT, May 11, 1940, p. 1.
38 British troops were pouring: WP, May 11, 1940, p. 1.
38 “a profound sense . . .”: Winston S. Churchill, The Second World War, vol. I, The Gathering Storm (1948), p. 601.
38 “The day was unforgettable . . .”: Helen Gahagan Douglas, OH, FDRL.
39 “OK, Helen . . .”: interview with Billy Wilder.
39 she felt terribly left out: interview with Elliott Roosevelt.
39 “All her life . . .”: interview with Eleanor Wotkyns.
CHAPTER TWO: “A Few Nice Boys with BB Guns”
40 Here, on the . . .: Neil MacNeil, Forge of Democracy: The House of Representatives (1963), p. 132.
40 In the Congress in 1940: NYT, Jan. 7, 1940, sect. VI, p. 3.
41 The president’s arrival: WP, May 17, 1940, p. 4; NYT, May 17, 1940, p. 10.
41 “walls of sand . . .”: Cordell Hull, The Memoirs of Cordell Hull, vol. II (1948), p. 769.
41 Absent were both: NYT, May 17, 1940, pp. 1, 10; Charlotte Observer, May 17, 1940, p. 2.
41 failed to put on glasses: Time, May 27, 1940, p. 17.
42 “I trust you realize . . .”: WC to FDR, May 15, 1940, Churchill & Roosevelt: The Complete Correspondence (1984), vol. I, p. 37.
42 “The great knife . . .”: quoted in Carl Degler, Out of Our Past (1959), p. 383.
42 employment and tax statistics: Historical Statistics of the United States Colonial Times to 1957 (1961), pp. 67–73, 713–15.
42 Thirty-one percent: Richard Polenberg, One Nation Divisible (1980), p. 19.
43 small-town nation: ibid., p. 17.
43 “Class membership . . .”: ibid., p. 16.
43 “It is hard to think . . .”: William Leuchtenburg in Harvard Sitkoff, Fifty Years Later: The New Deal Evaluated (1985), p. 230.
44 “These are ominous days . . .”: transcript of speech, collection of speeches, FDRL.
45 “the President’s big round number . . .”: Irving Holley, Jr., Buying Aircraft (1964), p. 228.
45 “like an utterly impossible . . .”: Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., Lend-Lease (1944), pp. 12–13.
45 In times of crisis: Grant McConnell, The Modern Presidency (1976), p. 4.
45 “believed that with enough . . .”: AM, Sept. 1949, p. 43.
45 “So passionate a faith . . .”: ibid., p. 39.
46 In his imagination: interview with James Roosevelt.
46 “There’s som
ething . . .”: Perkins, OH, Columbia University.
46 “His most outstanding . . .”: W. M. Kiplinger, Washington Is Like That (1942), p. 14.
46 “those who hear it . . .”: Samuel I. and Dorothy Rosenman, Presidential Style (1976), p. 321.
46 “his capacity to inspire . . .”: Collier’s, Sept. 12, 1946, p. 102.
46 “the new President . . .”: Collier’s, March 11, 1933, p. 8.
46 “the renewal of the courage . . .”: Rosenman and Rosenman, Presidential Style, p. 323.
47 “the President is right”: Time, May 27, 1940, p. 21.
47 “a four alarm fire . . .”: Newsweek, May 27, 1940, p. 35.
47 “was quickly succeeded . . .”: Time, May 27, 1940, p. 22.
47 “tragically late”: ibid., p. 21.
47 “the failure of the New Deal . . .”: NYT, May 17, 1940, p. 10.
47 “a defense hysteria . . .”: Vital Speeches, vol. 6, pp. 485–86.
47 response to Lindbergh speech: NYT, May 21, 1940, p. 12.
48 “During the present . . .”: CR, 76th Cong., 3rd sess., May 13, 1940, p. 5947; May 15, 1940, p. 6163.
48 “If I should die tomorrow . . .”: Ted Morgan, FDR: A Biography (1985), p. 523.
48 “but when he did get angry . . .”: ER interview, Graff Papers, FDRL.
48 “When I read Lindbergh’s speech . . .”: Henry Stimson to FDR, May 21, 1940, PSF 106, FDRL.
48 ER told a newspaper reporter: NYT, May 21, 1940, p. 12.
48 congressional appropriations: Mark S. Watson, Chief of Staff (1950), pp. 166–69.
49 “on russet roads . . .”: Time, May 21, 1940, p. 18.
49 biggest peacetime maneuver: NYT, April 28, 1940, p. 19.
49 Blues were heading: NYT, May 7, 1940, p. 8; TP, April 27, 1940, p. 4.
49 games were intended: TP, April 28, 1940, p. 1; NYT, April 28, 1940, p. 19.
49 supplies: Newsweek, May 13, 1940, p. 29.
49 announcement of games: TP, April 14, 1940, sect. II, p. 6.
49 men, women, and children: TP, May 10, 1940, p. 1.
49 discrete exercises: ibid.
49 “Consider the task . . .”: TP, April 14, 1940, sect. II, p. 6.
50 “drilling bright tunnels . . .”: TP, May 10, 1940, pp. 1, 3.
50 squadron of Red bombers: NYHT, May 10, 1940, p. 7.
50 Two days later: TP, May 14, 1940, p. 23.
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