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Quote by Blanche Wiesen Cook

“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.”

Quote by Blanche Wiesen Cook

Author

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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“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.”

Thinking Whole Mother Effort Pay Attention Brother Response Whole Life Pay Attention Attractive Eleanor

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.”

People Thinking Needs Writing Two Moments Mother Felt Trouble Two Things Dedicated Strokes Foreheads Headache Like Her Eleanor

Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook

“I mean, her father was an alcoholic, and her mother was the suffering wife of a man who she could never predict what he would do, where he would be, who he would be. And it's sort of interesting because Eleanor Roosevelt never writes about her mother's agony. She only writes about her father's agony. But her whole life is dedicated to making it better for people in the kind of need and pain and anguish that her mother was in.”

People Men Needs Writing Kind Mean Whole Would Be Pain Life Is Mother Suffering Father Interesting Wife Whole Life Dedicated Agony Anguish Alcoholics Eleanor

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.”

Thinking Knows Want Age Wanted Faces Mother Dies Felt Parent Imagine Wall Died Agony Abandonment Lifelong Eleanor Mother 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.”

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.”