“the children are grown”: ER at Town Hall forum, New York Times, 3 February 1936.
Florence Birmingham, president: New York Times, 4 June 1939. For ER’s refusal and court decision on 18 and 20 July 1939, see Democratic Digest, August 1939; New York Times, 12 August 1939; on Felker, New York Times, 22 July 1939.
“if not for your own sakes”: Reid, New York Times, 3 June 1939.
“attend to your own knitting”: New York Times, 22 July 1939; supportive editorial is in New York Times, 24 July 1939; ER to Junior League, 28 November 1939.
unavailable for fun: ER to Hick, 9 March 1939.
splendid color films: Earl’s film, Tommy to Anna, 8 May 1939.
“the Cook and the Dickerman”: Tommy to Lape and Read, 1939, Arizona Collection.
to be “very ill”: Tommy to Anna, 8 May 1939.
essay on religious freedom: Draft, for Liberty, March 1939, in Hickok, box 6.
was “playing politics”: Marcantonio, I Vote My Conscience, 16 June, 20 July, 3 August 1939, 108–9.
Federal Theatre Project: Jane DeHart Mathews, Federal Theatre, 122–25.
“handed me a newspaper”: Flanagan, Arena, 202–5.
“Somehow we must build”: ER’s broadcast is quoted in Flanagan, Arena, 206.
“I must say that talking”: My Day, 24 June 1939.
vigorously defended the theater: Caroline O’Day in Congressional Record; Shaw and O’Neill in Flanagan, Arena, 192–93.
lewd and “salacious”: Flanagan, Arena, 355–60; and Mathews, Federal Theatre, 290–94.
“having conquered selfishness”: Flanagan, Arena, 364–65; and Mathews, Federal Theatre, 236–95; see esp. T. H. Watkins, The Hungry Years, 510–11.
A pacifist but never an isolationist: There is no biography of Caroline O’Day, and her papers have been lost. See Jonas, Isolationism in America, 189–93 and passim; and Marion Dickerman on Caroline Love Goodwin O’Day, in Notable American Women, 648–50.
“The more we see”: ER went on to say that economic waste and distress anywhere affect people everywhere. In military carnage, “the effects are just the same whether you win or whether you lose. . . . As the rest of the world suffers, so eventually do we.” ER, “Because the War Idea Is Obsolete,” reprinted in Black, Courage, 85.
“We must find a way whereby”: ER, “Three Americans Plead for Peace,” Democratic Digest, May 1937, 17.
“I think it may interest you”: FDR to Caroline O’Day, 1 July 1939, in FDR: Personal Letters, 4:900–1.
she rejected the proposed Ludlow Amendment: ER, “Three Americans Plead for Peace,” Democratic Digest, May 1937, and Time, 17 April 1939.
“Protect our Mrs. Catt”: Elizabeth N. Baker to ER, 1 February 1939; ER to Baker, 6 February 1939, ER Papers; “Because the War Idea Is Obsolete,” in Catt’s Why Wars Must Cease, 20ff, quote on 28.
Her talk at the convention: ER was accompanied by Tommy and Elinor Morgenthau. White noted that they had “reserve seats on the platform” since the mosque, which seated 5,200 people, was sold out. Walter White to ER, 13 June 1939; ER to White, 19 June 1939; White to ER, 20 June 1939, ER Papers.
a powerful speech: ER’s presentation of Spingarn Medal, Crisis, April, June, July, September, for ER-related notations.
“The courage to meet many difficulties”: Crisis, September 1939, 265, 285; “First Lady Honors Marian Anderson,” New York Times, 3 July 1939.
“Speaking in the very stronghold”: Editorial of the Month, Mrs. Roosevelt’s speech, reprinted from Chicago Defender in Crisis, August 1939, 243; lunch with Virginia’s governor James Prince, My Day, 3 July 1939.
“Nothing finer could come out”: ER to AYC, remarks and broadcast, 21 February 1939, in Hickok, box 6; “Anti-Red Resolution,” New York Times, 4 July 1939. See also Lash, Friend’s Memoir, 51; “First Lady Accused,” New York Times, 6 July 1939.
to “guard against”: ER to WILPF on freedom of the press, New York Times, 17 January 1939. At the sixtieth anniversary luncheon of the Ethical Culture Schools on 21 January, she addressed more than a thousand educators and parents with a similar speech. ER to Ethical Culture, New York Times, 22 January 1939.
“the root problem”: In this “nation afflicted at the moment with astigmatic near-sightedness,” wrote Fannie Hurst to ER, “your remarks last night were splendid, and the phrase ‘We have bought time to think’ is perfect—I hope you use it wherever possible.” Fannie Hurst to ER, 22 February 1939. ER replied to Hurst on 25 February, “How much I appreciate all you say,” Hurst Papers.
“Democracy must have”: ER to Democratic Women, and Fannie Hurst, New York Times, 16 June 1939.
“damned kike coward”: Hick to ER, 8 and 9 February 1939; 17 February 1939, Hickok, box 6.
“If anything is evident today”: “Mrs. R Asks for Interfaith Amity,” New York Times, 3 July 1939.
“educational opportunities is”: My Day, 1 July 1939. ER’s Independence Day theme was “unity of spirit and a determination to find a way to share our wealth.” My Day, 3–5 July 1939.
“impromptu press conference”: New York Times, 5 July 1939; My Day, 6 July 1939.
“I left in my own car”: My Day, 7 July 1939; FDR boarded his special train, New York Times, 5 July 1939.
“Pat, old dear”: FDR to Pat Harrison, 6 July 1939, in FDR: Personal Letters, 4:902.
“ought to understand clearly”: My Day, 8 July 1939.
“These gentlemen must”: My Day, 13 July 1939.
anti-Jewish laws . . . Gypsies: U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, Fifty Years After the Eve of Destruction, 9.
“The amount they say will feed”: My Day, 18 July 1939.
“indiscriminate bombing”: FDR to Cordell Hull, 7 July 1939, in FDR: Personal Letters, 4:903–4. On Ambassador Johnson, see Heinrichs, Threshold of War, 288, Oumansley in Ickes, Secret Diary, 2:670–71.
predicting a long, intense war: Ickes, Secret Diary, 2:669–70, 675–77, 685.
“because of its neutrality laws”: See Gerhard Weinberg, A World at Arms, 1013.
“he sounded very cheerful”: My Day, 18 July 1939.
“to open this meeting with a prayer”: Davis, FDR: Into the Storm, 457–58. David Kennedy, Freedom from Fear, 425. On Borah, see Carol Felsenthal, Alice Longworth, chapters 8 and 9.
“perhaps, hangs the fate”: My Day, 21 July 1939.
continued to fight: Davis, FDR: Into the Storm, 453. A Democratic Digest editorial for “executive powers” regarding international relations, dated February 1939, 26, read: “In this vast external realm . . . the President [has] a degree of discretion and freedom from statutory restriction which would not be admissible were domestic affairs alone involved.” Unattributed, it is possible that ER, as founder and contributing editor, was involved in the drafting of this editorial.
“I finished the mail”: My Day, 24 July 1939.
“His fund of tales”: Ibid.
“the most liberal administration”: Norman Littell to Anna, 21 July 1939, Anna Roosevelt Halsted Papers, box 36. For a discussion of the role played by Corcoran and Cohen, see Lash, Dealers and Dreamers, 366–69, 390–92; and Littell, My Roosevelt Years.
“all bets will be off”: FDR recounted his meeting with Farley to Ickes in detail; see Ickes, Secret Diary, 2:691–92. See also Anna to Katherine and Norman Littell, 8 August 1939, Anna Roosevelt Halsted Papers, box 36.
“was very useful in making”: ER to Anna, 17 July 1939, Anna Roosevelt Halsted Papers, box 57; My Day, 25 July 1939; My Day, 28 July 1939; Roosevelt Deed Library Site, New York Times, 25 July 1939; Anna to Katherine and Norman Littell, 8 August 1939.
“played so beautifully”: My Day, 27 July 1939.
“I suppose I had better”: My Day, 29 July 1939.
“Your car was stopped”: My Day, 31 July 1939.
“It is wearisome to read”: My Day, 1 August 1939. She had read Graham Hutton’s Atlantic Monthly article, “The Next War,” which illustrated how “we are duplicating our behavior of before the 1914 cataclysm.”
“No other contribution”: Ickes, Secret Diary, 2:689–90. See also William Preston, “Shadow of War and Fear,” in Reitman, Pulse of Freedom, 105–53; Schrecker, Many Are the Crimes, 95 and passim; and Theoharis, Spying on Americans, 197–98, 201–6. Martin Dies was already compiling lists of alleged subversives and federally employed “political undesirables” to be investigated under the Hatch Act, which in 1940 morphed into the Smith Act. Subsequently the federal loyalty program was dominated by Joseph McCarthy and the McCarran Act.
“I am sore and bruised of spirit”: See also Ickes, Secret Diary, 2:668, 680–84, 693–94.
to “Dearest Franklin”: ER to FDR, 5 August 1939, box 177. At the end, the typed word “Affectionately” was crossed out and signed in pen, “Much Love, ER.”
“I wish the Congressmen”: My Day, 8 August 1939.
“their sporting disposition”: My Day, 9 August 1939.
“let his wife join in”: “Off the Floor,” Time, 21 August 1939; FDR to James Roosevelt, 11 August 1939, in FDR: Personal Letters, 4:912.
“a silent, empty place”: My Day, 14 August 1939.
She tried to work on her new book: ER to Anna, 17 July 1939, Anna Roosevelt Halsted Papers, box 57.
“I can’t say that”: My Day, 14 August 1939.
“war would leave no victors”: My Day, 12 and 14 August 1939.
“I lay the other night”: My Day, 15 August 1939.
“plain, insecure, lonely little girl”: For Corinne, ER, and Marie Souvestre, see Merry, Taking on the World, 65–66.
“Auntie Bye had a tongue”: Alsop, I’ve Seen the Best of It, 30.
“light, cheerful sort of piece”: Ibid., 10–12.
“Joe Alsop was here”: ER to FDR, 14 August 1939, box 16. In that letter ER also noted that she had a “nice picnic” for newspaper people, mostly editors: she and Heywood Broun were “the only columnists.” The two events were unrelated.
“glowing” family profile: Joseph Alsop, “The President’s Family Album,” Life.
“When I was connected with”: My Day, 17 August 1939.
“I do not understand Nancy”: ER to Mary Dreier, 29 August 1939, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute.
a “little cottage”: My Day, 18 August 1939.
Cornelius “Neil” Vanderbilt: Vanderbilt, Man of the World, 204–6, 210–13. Raconteur, reporter, and FDR’s occasional spy, Neil Vanderbilt wrote much-admired and equally dismissed adventures in many worlds that evoked the eponymous hero of Upton Sinclair’s Lanny Budd novels.
“The mother of my President”: Carmel Offie to LeHand, 9 August 1939, Grace Tully Collection. Offie sent a running river of gossip and news from the Paris embassy to Missy LeHand, Mary Eben, and other White House administrators.
“Oh, comme le président”: Neil Vanderbilt, Cornelius Vanderbilt: Man of the World, 204–6, 210–13.
Chapter Five: “If They Perish, We Perish Sooner or Later”
Nazi-Soviet Pact: Churchill, Gathering Storm, 374–81, 389–95; Manchester, Last Lion, 2:470–90.
“All talk of appeasement”: Nicolson, Diaries and Letters, 21 August 1939, 1:411.
“friendship cemented with blood”: Ehrenburg, Memoirs, 472–75.
defenses along the Maginot Line: Manchester, Last Lion, 2:492–96.
“grim and preoccupied”: “Americans Abroad Urged to Return,” New York Times, 25 August 1939.
“probably means a partition”: Ickes, Secret Diary, 2:703.
“dispatched three appeals”: “President Appeals to Poles and Reich,” New York Times, 25 August 1939.
“to go into Siberia”: For the international situation leading to this, see esp. Williams, American-Russian Relations, 247–54; Neumann, America Encounters Japan, 244–55; and Ickes, Secret Diary, 2:700–7.
“in order not unnecessarily”: Ickes, Secret Diary, 2:700.
“who stays on in Paris”: SDR and Aunt Dora, My Day, 24 August 1939.
“one man may decide”: My Day, 25 August 1939.
“the newspapers these days”: My Day, 24 August 1939.
an “excellent lunch”: My Day, 22 August 1939.
“I sank into bed last night”: My Day, 25 August 1939.
“I talked to the President”: My Day, 26 August 1939.
“Both the Pope and the President”: My Day, 26 August 1939.
“What ghastly hours”: Sackville-West to Nicolson, 24 August 1939, in Nicolson, Diaries and Letters, 1:413.
“I feel that every day”: My Day, 30 August 1939.
“lies and invented incidents”: Shirer, Berlin Diary, 177–93.
“riding around on”: Ibid., 183, 185.
her lifelong friend: Alice Kidd, later Huntington, was “a great influence” on ER in the early years. See Cook, ER, 1:95.
“boys and girls, Jews, Catholics”: My Day, 30 August 1939.
“moccasins made me think”: My Day, 31 August 1939.
“Germany had invaded Poland”: My Day, 2 September 1939.
“sense of impending disaster”: TIR, 207.
“when hate was rampant”: Carola von Schaeffer-Bernstein to ER, 19 August 1939. On Carola de Passavant at Allenswood, see Cook, ER, 1:108; Lash, Eleanor and Franklin, 75–76, 561, 567, 574–75, 583–84.
“As I listened to Hitler’s speech”: My Day, 2 September 1939.
“I could not help remembering”: Ibid.
“From London, Birmingham”: “British Children Taken from Cities,” New York Times, 1 September 1939, 1.
“Even the highest Nazis”: Nicolson, Diaries and Letters.
“War will be declared”: Ickes, Secret Diary, 2:712–13.
“through your radios ”: FDR, “Reaction to War in Europe: Preparing for Cash-and-Carry,” 3 September 1939, in Buhite and Levy, Fireside Chats,148–51.
“a bad proclamation”: Nicolson, Diaries and Letters, 4 September 1939, 2:30.
“It is curious when”: My Day, 5 September 1939.
“met the steamer”: My Day 2 September 1939.
“always enjoys” this: My Day, 5 September 1939.
“We were discussing the 1914”: My Day, 7 September 1939.
“I cannot say”: ER to Carola von Schaeffer-Bernstein, 6 September 1939.
“always remain a nation within a nation”: “On Jews” (ER’s unpublished essay), 25 November 1938.
“This will be a happy day”: My Day, 9 September 1939.
“We awoke,” ER wrote: My Day, 6 September 1939.
Morgenthaus’ voyage: New York Times, 9 September 1939.
“the most beautiful drive”: My Day, 9 September 1939.
“We cooked our lunch”: Ibid.
“sight of domestic problems”: My Day, 11 September 1939.
“in time to greet”: My Day, 9 September 1939.
“all the little tag ends”: My Day, 12 September 1939.
Chapter Six: “We Have to Fight with Our Minds”
“in the present crisis”: Democratic Digest, October 1939, 25, 33.
“a good shield”: My Day, 13 September 1939.
“We must not forget”: Ibid.
of “racial extermination”: Gilbert, Second World War, 6–10; Gilbert, History of Twentieth Century, 2:271.
“Every soldier feels disgusted”: Weitz, Hitler’s Banker, 254.
“of the infantile paralysis”: My Day, 15 September 1939. There is no evidence ER knew anything about Tuskegee’s racist and deadly syphilis experiment, which continued from 1932 to 1972.
“gout hospital for col
ored veterans”: My Day, 13, 14, 15, 16, and 18 September 1939.
“a very pleasant beginning”: Ibid.
“Soviet Russia stabs Poland”: Shirer, Berlin Diary, 199–212; New York Times.
“the attack on Poland by Russia”: ER to Maude Gray, in Lash, Eleanor and Franklin, 584.
“I think this [Nazi-Soviet] pact”: Anna Louise Strong to ER, 24 August 1939.
“A curious way”: My Day, 18 September 1939.
“I know that you”: ER to Strong, 27 September, ER Papers.
“piece of anti-aircraft shell”: Offie to LeHand, 9 September 1939.
From Paris, Carmel: Cudahy to LeHand, 11 September 1939, Glenn Horowitz Collection.
“The war continues”: ER to Mary Dreier, 18 September 1939.
through “beautiful country”: My Day, 19 September 1939.
“any effective help”: Werth, Russia at War, 56–59.
“Human life has been”: Anne O’Hare McCormick, New York Times, 16 and 18 September 1939.
“in this war the seeds”: My Day, 19 September 1939.
“to maintain a fighting front”: “Week in Review,” New York Times, 10 September 1939.
his “appalling depression”: Nicolson, Diaries and Letters, 16–20 September 1939, 2:33–36.
“America’s splendid isolationism”: My Day, 19 September 1939.
“hysterical with joy”: Gilbert, Second World War, 11.
as Operation T4: Ibid.
“any war anywhere”: FDR, “Message to Congress Urging the Extraordinary Session to Repeal the Embargo Provision of the Neutrality Law,” 21 September 1939, in Zevin, Nothing to Fear, 183-92; Essential FDR, 173–80.
“Your message was grand”: ER to FDR, 21 September 1939; My Day, 22 September 1939.
“I have never been a pacifist”: New York Times, 28 September 1939; ER, press conference, 27 September 1939, in Beasley, ER Press Conferences, 126–29.
Warsaw fell to the Nazis: Gilbert, Second World War, 12–16.
“If you feel sad, think of me”: Cudahy to LeHand, 10 October 1939, Glenn Horowitz Collection.
“300,000 tons of”: Gilbert, Second World War, 16. The German Soviet Accord was signed on 29 September 1939. See also Werth, Russia at War, 59–62.
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