What an inspiring woman! This was such an insightful journey into a remarkable life and her choices and decisions that affected so many Americans and people worldwide! She truly deserved to be honored with accolades from all the world!

I felt her pain as a child and growing up! Then to suffer so much humiliation from her own mother and family! Then to be treated so cruelly by her own spouse was in humane! Then at the end of her life she suffered deeply by having to see a man she loved marry another. Eventually, they ended up living with her because she loved him so, but she had formed such an attachment to him that she could accept the marriage. He was also her personal doctor that she would not let another one treat her.

The author was able to get to the core of Eleanors deepest desires and emotions that I was immersed to the very end. The book at the beginning is a little confusing figuring out who is who, but once you get past that initial section it takes another level of energy. He was able to weave a storyline of a grand lady that gave us some valuable values and propelled our country to look at humanity in a way that we could be not only empathetic, but supportive as well!

I give this book 10 stars and would definitely recommend this book to anyone!

I received an advanced copy from NetGalley and these are my willingly given thoughts and opinions.

First Lady of the World
New biography of Eleanor Roosevelt
Michele Harris
Michele.harris@erickson.com

Diplomat, humanitarian, activist and America’s longest-serving First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt’s remarkable ability to engage with everyone from royalty to dust-bowl farmers combined with her strong desire to help people made her one of the most widely admired women of the 20th century.

When President Harry S. Truman, her husband’s successor, appointed her as the U.S. delegate to the U.N. General Assembly he called her “First Lady of the World.”

To the public, she appeared fearless and determined. Privately, however, Roosevelt struggled with deep-seated self-esteem issues stemming from her traumatic childhood.

A new biography by David Michaelis appropriately titled, Eleanor (Simon and Schuster) focuses on the First Lady’s private side—exploring, among other things, her lifelong yearning for emotional connection and unconditional love.

Early years

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was born on Oct. 11, 1884, in New York City. It was the height of the Gilded Age, a time when “old money” families like the Roosevelts lived in lavish mansions while, in another part of town, immigrant workers and their families lived in squalor.

Her mother, Anna Hall Roosevelt had been the most beautiful debutante of the 1881 season. A vain and frivolous woman, she expected Eleanor to follow in her footsteps.

But Eleanor did not resemble her mother—not in her looks and not in her personality. Unlike her high-spirited mother, young Eleanor was serious and quiet.

Anna made no effort to mask her disappointment, cruelly nicknaming her daughter “granny” and calling her by that the unflattering moniker without regard for who was in the room. Michaelis details Anna’s constant mockery of Eleanor and says that among those who bore witness to what he calls “ritualized humiliation,” were James and Sara Roosevelt, parents of her future husband, Franklin.

Handsome and kind, her father Elliott was the bright spot of Eleanor’s childhood. A Manhattan “swell,” who spent most days hunting, drinking and cavorting with his buddies at exclusive men’s clubs, Elliott relished spending time with his daughter.

Their time together grew increasingly sporadic, however, as Elliott went from one rehab center to another seeking treatment for alcoholism and a burgeoning laudanum (an opiate) addiction.

In 1892, Anna died of diphtheria.

The following year, Eleanor’s younger brother died of the same disease.

And a year after that, Elliott tried to commit suicide by jumping out a window. He survived the fall but ultimately died from his injuries.

Just two months shy of her tenth birthday, Eleanor was an orphan.

Eyes and ears

After attending boarding school in England, Eleanor returned to Manhattan where she became active in the Progressive movement. She took the El train to the lower east side where she taught children living in the Rivington Street Settlement House—a public housing project serving poor immigrants.

While her trips to the “slums” horrified her elegant grandmother, Eleanor was dedicated to helping the underprivileged. She wanted firsthand knowledge of how people were coping with the challenges of poverty.

The desire to see things “with her own two eyes,” would remain a constant throughout her life.

Later, as First Lady, she became known as the “eyes and ears of the New Deal” when she traveled America’s backroads and city streets to find out how miners, sharecroppers and factory workers were coping with the hardships of the Great Depression.
Declining Secret Service protection, she thought nothing of driving herself to a school or housing project in Washington, D.C. to find out what people needed most from the government. (She did agree to the Secret Service’s request that she keep a pistol in the glove compartment.).

Mrs. Roosevelt

Like many young women, Eleanor felt awkward and insecure around potential sweethearts…until she reconnected with her fifth cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

They bonded over their mutual love of books and politics, she once said that with Franklin, there were “no dreadful silences.”

He told his mother that “Cousin Eleanor has a fine mind.”

When they married in 1905, Eleanor was full of hope. The mere idea of being loved and belonging to someone filled her with joy.

Their happiness was short-lived, however. In 1918, Franklin returned from Europe with pneumonia in both lungs and a stack of love letters in his trunk. They were from Lucy Mercer, Eleanor’s good friend and former social secretary.

Betrayal by both her husband and her friend was devastating. She offered Franklin a civilized divorce, but his political advisors warned that the scandal of divorce would effectively end his bright future in politics.

The Roosevelts remained married, though their relationship was more of a political partnership than a romantic one. Over the years, each found lovers and emotional confidents outside of the marriage.

Still carrying the shame of her mother’s abuse, Eleanor, in particular, sought unconditional and long-lasting love.

While still in the White House, she grew especially close with aviator Emilia Earhart and during her husband’s campaign, Eleanor bonded with Associated Press reporter Lorena Hickok. She also had several close relationships with men, especially younger men.

Like many historical figures, some of the revelations in this new book–the first single-volume biography of Roosevelt in six decades–brings to light instances when Roosevelt made racist and anti-Semitic remarks. While these revelations may not be new, they will justifiably spark new assessments of Eleanor Roosevelt’s legacy.

"All her life, Eleanor believed that she had to earn love--by pleasing others, by undertaking ever more numberless duties, by one more tour of useful Rooseveltian doing.~ from Eleanor by David Michaelis
Compared to her beautiful parents, she was plain. Her mother was a social butterfly and her father was charming. Her mother nicknamed her Granny. Her alcoholic father could make her feel like a princess, but he was unreliable and could not save her. She struggled with confidence all her life.

She found happiness with her grandparents and while away at school where she was mentored by a progressive, free thinking lesbian. She would have liked to become a nurse, but was fated to 'come out' into the marriage market.

She married her cousin when he was still a priggish outsider. She saw him become a handsome ladies man determined to follow their uncle Teddy's career path to the White House.

She bore nine children. She lost family to alcoholism and disease. When she learned of her husband's infidelity, her mother-in-law forbade divorce. She found love outside of her marriage and family with women and younger men.

"Martha Gellhorn thought of her as 'the loneliest human being I ever knew in my life'."~from Eleanor by David Michaelis

Remarkably, this unfortunate woman turned tragedy into strength, depression into action. She had been ignorant of politics and world affairs and had accepted the status quo understanding of status, race, religion, world affairs. She threw herself into the work of understanding human need. As she traveled the world and the country, she learned, expanded, and became a powerful voice.

She pushed her presidential husband toward positions of equity and inclusiveness and empathy and morality. She expanded the role of the First Lady, a tireless campaigner.

She was a leader in the United Nations as they forged the first statement of human rights. On the President's Commission on the Status of Women she "identified the issues that soon became the agenda of the women's movement."

David Michaelis has given us a marvelous, empathetic biography of this complex woman. He does not spare Franklin Roosevelt or shroud Eleanor's deep love for Lorena Hickok in doubt.

Eleanor is a timeless role model who should inspire each generation. Life did not break her, the times did not discourage her, public opinion did not stop her. Eleanor rose above it all to follow her innate moral compass and lead us all to compassion and a just society.

I was given a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Well researched biography of a remarkable woman. The author spends a great deal of time focusing on Eleanor's early years and details how her experiences influence her throughout her life. The story can be tedious and richly detailed at times but will leave you with a better understanding and appreciation for Eleanor Roosevelt. I recommend to those who are fascinated with this period in history and would enjoy a window into the life of this formidable figure. Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to review this ARC.

Eleanor by David Michaelis
4.5 stars

I requested this ARC because I did not know much about Eleanor Roosevelt, but my mother, having been born in 1924 in a working class family and growing up during the Depression and WWII, greatly admired Eleanor and spoke of her often as I grew up. Mrs. Roosevelt was a big influence in my mother’s life and thoughts, and in some ways, my mother’s values were eerily similar to those promulgated by Eleanor. So, this book appealed to me as a way to learn more about my mother’s lifelong “heroine”. And I was not disappointed! This book turned out to be an amazing look into very personal details of ER’s life, documenting all 78 years of this active, intelligent woman’s path to her enduring place in history.

She was born during Victorian times in 1884. The author paints her as a subdued, reticent child. ER had little confidence and felt homely, as her mother always referred to her as “plain”. Her parents were socialites, and while she adored her father Eliot, he and mother Anna were relatively uninvolved in the lives of their children, pursuing their own interests amid their dysfunctional marriage.
Orphaned at age 10, Eleanor then went to live with her maternal grandmother Hall, who offered strict guidance to Eleanor and her brother Hall. At age 15, Grandma Hall sent Eleanor to England to the Allenswood Academy to study with headmistress Marie Souvestre, whose passion was to foster independent thinking in young women. There, Eleanor found her confidence and her voice.

Returning at age 17 she went through the usual debutante activities and finally fell in love with her distant cousin Franklin, who, as a strong male presence, was attractive to her at that stage of her life.
The marriage was not particularly warm or sensual, and FDR is portrayed as self-centered and driven by his political aspirations. ER tried to be a subservient wife to FDR (even as she endured her mother-in-law Sara’s unremitting interference in her marriage and her household), and mother to their 6 children, as customs dictated in the early 1900s. Eleanor worked tirelessly to support his career. But she also still pursued her own causes, especially during WWI. She was a Red Cross captain and worked tirelessly to support the soldiers.

When she discovered, in 1918, that her husband was deeply involved romantically with Lucy Mercer, Eleanor’s life changed dramatically. FDR would not accept her offer of divorce, so she stayed in the marriage to keep his political career on its upward track. Sadly, they were unable or unwilling to achieve a close warm relationship again. ER did her duties but she was no longer was invested in the marriage and spent more and more time working for her favorite causes: women’s suffrage, children’s welfare, social justice, labor issues and racial equality.
She worked tirelessly, crisscrossing the country and visiting other nations, in her efforts for peace and global cooperation. She became FDR’s representative in many arenas, but also pursued causes he did not care for. After his death, she continued her career as a strong supporter of women’s issues and global thinking. She also remained an important figure in the Democratic Party, even being courted by JFK for her “blessing” on his run for President.

Throughout this book, Eleanor is portrayed as a sympathetic character, and the reader learns much about where she started and how she ended up being regarded so highly by people around the world. She evolved and showed great growth of character, as she lived from Victorian times through the age of nuclear weapons and the Cold War. The book focuses on her complicated relationships with FDR, her family and her friends, and is extensively annotated, which is a bonus for the reader. This book is clearly well-researched and very informative about history, especially as it documents the political wrangling in New York and Washington from 1900 through 1962.

I finished this book with a great respect for this woman who worked within the framework of the times in which she lived, but continually pushed the boundaries of what women can accomplish and how they can influence the world. I would highly recommend this book to my daughters as well as readers interested in US History, American politics, women’s rights and the life of a remarkable American icon, Eleanor Roosevelt.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a digital copy of "Eleanor" in exchange for an honest review. I've wanted to read more about Eleanor before having read about her in a book, "American Princess" That book focuses on Eleanor's frienemy and cousin Alice Roosevelt. This book is pretty dense. It does a good overview of her personal life but after the parts about her childhood, it seems mostly focused on her contribution to FDR's politics. After his death, the book takes us through her later years and all the work she still did, including being the only person still to this day with a standing ovation from delegates over every country at the United Nations. She literally became a living historical icon during her lifetime.

But it was all the personal details that the book did give me that drew me in. I want to know about a person's thoughts, dreams, behaviors and relationships. This was strongly hinted at here but I want to know more. Of course that isn't always possible because when a subject is deceased we can't exactly get in their heads. Eleanor had very interesting habits. She needed to felt needed and loved. When she didn't find that with her husband and children, she tended to find it with often random people. Even when they didn't reciprocate she still gave them her everything. She had to be useful. I'm sure this is rooted in her childhood and some trauma experienced there. However she also never had a super strong connection with her children and this was the most puzzling piece to me. Your kids are the perfect little creatures to take all your love and care and make you feel needed. But there you are... I want to know more. My curiosity here may never be satiated.

That said I adored Eleanor's activism and her fight against injustices and equality. It was interesting how she and FDR worked (or didn't sometimes) together. It was interesting to see what the family went through to keep the true effects of his illness from public light.

Yes this book was dense, but it was good. I learned a lot about her and find myself wanting to know even more.

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC.

Stars: This was incredibly well-researched, with lots of great detail and insight.

Wishes: I wish it wasn't so long. Maybe it would have been more manageable as a two volume set or perhaps with more sections. I found they long detailed passages to be wearisome.

A detailed look at the life of a truly fascinating woman. Her humility and strong desire to help is inspiring, regardless of the trauma that inspired it. It amazes me how families with so much wealth and privilege can have such a disproportionate amount of self-inflicted tragedy. Despite that, everyone is treated with balanced respect, even the ones who aren't particularly likeable, and there's a helpful guide to all of the players and their relationships to each other. A worthy ready for anyone who wants ti know more about a remarkable human being.

I have read many biographies/books about Franklin Delano Roosevelt which included several references to Eleanor Roosevelt. This is the first one that I have read that was devoted mainly to her. The book is well researched and written. The author does an excellent job in detailing how Eleanor's early life shaped her character and insecurities. Her ability to deal with adversity, bias and be empathetic to those less fortunate were the most impactful points for me. She was a remarkable woman and this book does justice to her and her legacy.

I received a free Kindle copy of this book courtesy of Net Galley and the publisher with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon and my nonfiction book review blog.

I didn’t like this book. It went into lengthy details about too much I didn’t want to know about and not enough about Eleanor. Though much was written about her, there wasn’t enough of just her to me. I know she was known politically though, so I guess, that was why it was written in that way. This book just wasn’t for me, I guess. Thank you to #NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review #Eleanor with my honest opinion.

I’ve read about sixty books on the various Roosevelts. Some were very good, like volume 1 of Blanche Weisen Cook’s Trilogy of Eleanor books, and some were just okay, like the books written by her children and grandchildren. So how did Eleanor by David Michaelis stack up?

According to the publisher, Eleanor is the first biography in six decades to talk about Eleanor Roosevelt’s whole life, from cradle to grave. I can attest to that. So many books about Eleanor end in 1945 when Franklin dies, as if the last, and I think, the most important years of her life, didn’t exist.

Eleanor was thoroughly researched and it shows. The book is 30% footnotes! From her difficult childhood with a beautiful, yet remote mother who dies when Eleanor is 8, to the beloved father, whose mental collapse and alcoholism kills him when Eleanor is 10, to her death in 1962, Michaelis has it all here.

Some of the quotes from letters just get to me. Like when Franklin and Eleanor are to wed, Theodore Roosevelt writes to Franklin about how the love of two people is more important than even the Presidency. Too bad Uncle Ted was wrong about Eleanor and Franklin’s relationship.

The problem was, Franklin didn’t like to confide in anyone, not especially Eleanor. He was aloof from everyone, even those he considered friends. Eleanor would spend much of the next fifteen years learning to accept that Franklin was not going to open up to her because it was not in his nature. The big takeaway here, as mentioned in the book several times, is that Eleanor and Franklin could not relax around one another.

Part of the problem was that Eleanor didn’t think too highly of herself. The woman who is famously quoted as saying “Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent” long practiced this. She had terrible self-esteem problems. Married to a man who wouldn’t confide in her, having a mother-in-law take charge of her household. Yet she soldiered on, even after having six children in ten years, even after Franklin was caught stepping out with Eleanor’s own social secretary.

One thing I thought Michaelis did well in Eleanor was show how she evolved. She was raised with the same bigoted ideas that many elitist families grew up with. But the author then shows her growth and acceptance, and finally, her fight for the disenfranchised, the downtrodden, those who did not have voices, or whose voices had been silenced too long.

Eleanor’s special friendships are explored, and there is no salaciousness to them, just documenting what was known about them without further speculation.

Eleanor’s work post-White House gets its due. Her work with the United Nations on a Declaration of Human Rights, her TV program, her continued work on her newspaper column My Day, her work for the Democratic Party in the elections of 1952, 1956 and 1960 are all written about by Michaelis.

No stone was left unturned for this in-depth biography of Eleanor Roosevelt. Eleanor is a 5-star book.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with this Advanced Reader’s Copy. Eleanor goes on sale to the general public October 6, 2020.

A must-have volume for any student of the Roosevelt oeuvre! David Michaelis delivers an insightful, wonderfully researched portrait of one of the twentieth centuries most fascinating women.

What a wonderful look into the life of such a wonderful first lady. It was extremely well-written and easy to follow. You can tell that David Michaelis put a lot of work into this biography and it shows.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book and review it.

If you want to learn about Eleanor this is the book to read. Before this book I didnt really know much about Eleanor but I do know. This book was very informative and very detailed. This book is about her life from the time she was born to the day she passed. You learn about her life in every way. Eleanor was ahead of her time, was very progressive and a very interesting woman.

This book was very well written, very educational and revealing. I highly recommend it.

Eleanor by David Michaelis, An excellent biography of Eleanor Franklin, and how she became the amazing woman she was.

My thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for an ARC in exchange for an honest book review.
David Michaelis has written an absorbing account of the multifaceted life of Eleanor Roosevelt..
From her often difficult and lonely childhood years to her marriage of betrayal we see her rise and become an aggressive and determined woman. Always looking for and needing an emotional and intimate relationship she develops close bonds with female friends and experiments with her own sexuality when she begins a relationship with Lorena Hickok a reporter on FDR’s initial presidential campaign as well as younger males. When her husband was stricken with polio, she became his voice, his surrogate and his strength as they partnered throughout his political life. They were most likely, the first political power couple as Franklin was the first and last president in US history to serve four terms with Eleanor by his side.
Eleanor was daughter, wife, lover, mother, humanitarian, advocate, influential activist and a champion for America’s freedom. She was the voice when others could not speak, she worked tirelessly to fight for those in need and she was the heart and mind for international human rights.
The world needs an Eleanor Roosevelt today. One that thinks globally, one that stands strong, one that is compassionate, one that is fair and believes in the goodness of humanity.
I admired Eleanor before reading this book but that admiration has grown with thanks to David Michaelis for this enjoyable, inspiring and highly recommended read.

The  "Eleanor" of the title is, of course, Eleanor Roosevelt.  She had most difficult early years and went on to live a truly remarkable life.  How did Eleanor go from a child so alone in the world, an orphan at an early age whose mother ridiculed her and whose father loved her but suffered from alcoholism and an inability to cope with life, to a most admired woman?  What was it like to be sent to school in England? What did it mean to have an uncle who was larger than life and a president?  To fall in love with an ambitious, pampered cousin who could not be faithful and who also had serious health challenges?  How did Eleanor go from an insecure young woman to a woman who was among the most admired in the world, a surrogate for Franklin and a first lady throughout WWII?  Who did she lean on and love once she knew that Franklin had affections elsewhere? 


All of these questions come under the scrutiny of Mr. Michaelis who has written an engaging and very readable biography of Eleanor.  It covers her whole life and finds the sweet space between a serious biography and an absorbing read.  I recommend it highly.


Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this read in exchange for an honest review.