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Quote by 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.”

Quote by Blanche Wiesen Cook

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Blanche Wiesen Cook

Blanche Wiesen Cook is an American scholar specializing in the study of American history and feminism. Born on April 20, 1941, she is renowned for her in-depth research on the role of women in American history. more

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“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.”

Thinking Pain Mother Deals Break Bed Painful Mysterious Abandonment Flu Disappearance Eleanor

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.”

Thinking Writing Looks Pain Grief Childhood Brother Bears Bed Sick Active Campaigns Eleanor

Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook

“Her [Eleanor Roosevelt] father was the love of her life. Her father always made her feel wanted, made her feel loved, where her mother made her feel, you know, unloved, judged harshly, never up to par. And she was her father's favorite, and her mother's unfavorite. So her father was the man that she went to for comfort in her imaginings.”

Knows Men Feels Made Wanted Mother Father He Man Comfort Judged Eleanor Unloved

Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook

“And in her [Eleanor Roosevelt] letters, she writes the most, you know, fanciful letters: when we are together, and when we are reunited, and you know, I will be your surrogate wife. Of course she doesn't use that word, but I will be the mother to my brothers, and I will be your primary love.”

Knows Writing Use Together Mother Courses Wife Brother Letters Primaries My Brother Eleanor Surrogates Reunited

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.”

Thinking Writing Mean Sometimes Father Emotion Fantasy Habit Comfort Letters Incredibles Primaries Evolve Lifelong Eleanor

Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook

“Well, the reality of her father was that he was a very diseased alcoholic, who died at the age of 34. And one always has to pause to wonder how much you have to drink to die at 34. And he was a really tragic father. I mean, he was absolutely unreliable. He was absolutely involved with various people. He had outside families, outside children, outside wives. He made his wife's life miserable. And she [Eleanor Roosevelt]ignored all of his faults and retained this sense of him as the perfect father.”

“It's interesting to me that really one of the first things she [Eleanor Roosevelt]did as First Lady was to collect her father's letters and publish a book called The Letters of My Father, essentially, hunting big game, The Letters of Elliott Roosevelt. And it really was an act of redemption, really one of her first acts of redemption as she entered the White House. She was going to redeem her father's honor. And publishing his letters, reconnecting with her childhood really fortified her to go on into the difficult White House years.”

Years Firsts Book Bigs Father Games House Difficult White Interesting Childhood Goes On Honor Letters Redemption White House Hunting Publishing Publish First Lady Eleanor Reconnecting

Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook

“Well, when Eleanor Roosevelt's mother dies, she goes to live with her Grandmother Hall. And her Grandmother Hall is in mourning. She's in widow's weeds. She's in her 50s, but appears very old. And she's exhausted from raising rather out-of-control children. Her favorite daughter, Anna, has died (Eleanor's mother), and she has living at home two other sons, Vallie and Eddie. And they are incredible sportsmen, incredible drinkers, out-of-control alcoholics.”

Wells Children Two Home Mother Dies Son Daughter Died Incredibles Mourning Grandmother Halls Weed Exhausted Alcoholics Widows Anna Drinkers Eleanor Sportsman

Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook

“And Grandmother Hall really imagines that she can raise Eleanor and her two brothers differently than these children were raised. And if she is very strict and everything is very regimented and ordered and disciplined, that they will become the perfect children who her own children did not become.”

Ifs Children Two Perfect Imagine Brother Raises Raised Grandmother Halls Imagine That Strict Eleanor Two Brothers Perfect Child

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.”

Ifs Thinking Way Writing Looks Order Dark Horror Scene Accounts Warm Saved Unhappy Contemporary One Way Grandmother Bleak Eleanor

Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook