“Eleanor Roosevelt started off almost every early article she wrote, starting with, "My mother was the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen." And I think her life was a constant and continual and lifelong contrast with her mother.” ThinkingBeautifulMotherConstantStartingArticlesContrastBeautiful WomenLifelongEleanor Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook
“Eleanor Roosevelt never thought that she was attractive. She never thought that she was really sufficiently appealing. And I think her whole life was a response to her effort to get her mother to pay attention to her, to love her, and to love her as much as she loved her brothers.” ThinkingWholeMotherEffortPayAttentionBrotherResponseWhole LifePay AttentionAttractiveEleanor Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook
“She writes that one of the moments that she felt most useful was when her mother had a headache, and she would stroke her head and rub her forehead. And I think Eleanor Roosevelt's entire life was dedicated to two things: (one) making it better for all people, people in trouble and in need, like her family.” PeopleThinkingNeedsWritingTwoMomentsMotherFeltTroubleTwo ThingsDedicatedStrokesForeheadsHeadacheLike HerEleanor Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook
“Her mother died at the age of 29, essentially turning her face to the wall and deciding to die. And so we can only imagine the agony she felt. And Eleanor Roosevelt really wanted to make her mother happier, and - and to make her live, you know, make her want to live. And there's something about, you know, when your mother dies, this sense of abandonment. I think Eleanor Roosevelt had a lifelong fear of abandonment and sense of abandonment after her parents' death.” ThinkingKnowsWantAgeWantedFacesMotherDiesFeltParentImagineWallDiedAgonyAbandonmentLifelongEleanorMother Died Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook
“I think that, very often there's a pain that's just too painful to touch. You'll break apart. And I think her mother's death and disappearance and abandonment was something she just never could deal with. Eleanor Roosevelt, when she's really very unwell in 1936, she takes to her bed. She has a mysterious flu.” ThinkingPainMotherDealsBreakBedPainfulMysteriousAbandonmentFluDisappearanceEleanor Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook
“And during the campaign of 1936, she writes that she and her brother would always rather be out doing things when they're sick, rather than take to their beds. And I think Eleanor Roosevelt always responded to pain by doing more, by doing something, by being active. And I think she just couldn't bear to look at her childhood grief. And she didn't.” ThinkingWritingLooksPainGriefChildhoodBrotherBearsBedSickActiveCampaignsEleanor Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook
“I think Eleanor Roosevelt always had a most incredible comfort writing letters. I mean, she was in the habit of writing letters. And that's where she allowed her fantasies to flourish. That's where she allowed her emotions to really evolve. And that's where she allowed herself to express herself really fully, and sometimes whimsically, very often romantically. And it really starts with her letters to her father, who is lifelong her primary love.” ThinkingWritingMeanSometimesFatherEmotionFantasyHabitComfortLettersIncrediblesPrimariesEvolveLifelongEleanor Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook
“In one way, it is this sense of order and also love that, I think, really saved Eleanor Roosevelt's life. And in her own writing, she's very warm about her grandmother, even though, if you look at contemporary accounts, they're accounts of horror at the Dickensian scene that Tivoli represents: bleak and drear and dark and unhappy. But Eleanor Roosevelt in her own writings is not very unhappy about Tivoli.” IfsThinkingWayWritingLooksOrderDarkHorrorSceneAccountsWarmSavedUnhappyContemporaryOne WayGrandmotherBleakEleanor Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook
“I think her Grandmother Hall gave her a great sense of family love, and reassurance. Her grandmother did love her, like her father, unconditionally. And despite the order and the discipline - and home at certain hours and out at certain hours and reading at certain hours - there was a surprising amount of freedom. Eleanor Roosevelt talks about how the happiest moments of her days were when she would take a book out of the library, which wasn't censored.” ThinkingBookMomentsHomeCertainOrderReadingFatherHoursAmountDisciplineLibraryDespiteGrandmotherHallsSurprisingFamily LoveLike HerReassuranceEleanorCensored Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook
“I think Eleanor Roosevelt's so popular at Allenswood because it's the first time she is, number one, free. But it's the first time somebody really recognizes her own leadership abilities and her own scholarly abilities.” ThinkingFirstsAbilityNumbersFirst TimeEleanorScholarly Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook
“I mean, if you pause over what it means at the age of 76 that Eleanor Roosevelt wrote, the happiest single day of her life was the day she made the first team at field hockey. Field hockey is a team sport. Field hockey is a knockabout - I mean, picture Allenswood, the swamps of north London. It's a messy sport. So she really enjoyed playing this rough-and-tumble sport in the mud of Allenswood, a team sport. And she was very competitive. And she loved being competitive, and she loved to win. And that, I think, was all of the things that Allenswood enabled.” IfsThinkingFirstsMeanMadeAgeWinningSportsTeamFieldsLondonEnjoyedRoughHockeyPausesMudMessySwampsEleanorSports TeamField Hockey Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook
“I think FDR was very dashing and charming and debonair, and probably reminded her of her father. A great bon-vivant. He loved to party. He loved to sing. He loved to have fun. And he wrote beautiful letters, just as her father did, which - alas and alack - Eleanor Roosevelt destroyed. But she refers to his beautiful letters. And she was charmed by him.” ThinkingBeautifulFatherFunPartyLettersDestroyedHaving FunCharmingAlasEleanorCharmedDashingDebonair Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook
“I think that Hick was in love with Eleanor, and Eleanor was in love with Hick. I think it's very important to look at the letters that are in my book, because unlike some of the recent published letters, I have both the personal and the political. And their relationship is about ardor. It's about fun. And it's also about politics.” ThinkingLooksImportantBookPoliticalFunLettersEleanorArdorHicks Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook
“She really is a completely different First Lady. Eleanor Roosevelt was not going to suffer and withdraw in the White House. And I think he's a very different President. He does not want his wife to suffer and withdraw in the White House. And they really are partners. They're partners in a big house where there are two separate courts, and they both know they have two separate courts. But these are courts that are allied in purpose, united in vision.” ThinkingKnowsWantFirstsDoeTwoDifferentBigsPurposeSufferingHousePresidentWhiteUnitedVisionWifeCourtPartnersWhite HouseFirst LadyEleanorBig Houses Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook
“Eleanor Roosevelt doesn't ever do anything that is going to hurt her husband. She tries things out on him. She gets permission to do things. The amazing thing, I think, historically, is that he says, "Go do it. If you can make this happen, I'll follow you."” IfsThinkingTryingHappensHurtHusbandPermissionAmazing ThingsEleanor Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook
“I think that Eleanor Roosevelt really learned about the limits of power and influence from Arthurdale. She could not make some things happen. And she particularly learned that she could not, just because she was nominally in charge, she could not change people's hearts and minds; that a very long process of education would result before race was on the national agenda. And it really did move her into the racial justice arena with both feet. She came out fighting.” PeopleThinkingMindHeartLongHappensMovingFightingProcessJusticeResultsRaceFeetInfluenceLimitsThings HappenAgendasHeart And MindArenaEleanorRacial Justice Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook
