08 Jan Franklin & Lucy
Franklin & Lucy, by Joseph E. Persico
(2008) Franklin and Lucy: President Roosevelt, Mrs. Rutherfurd, and the Other Remarkable Women in His Life is written by historian Joseph Persico who also wrote, among many others, Roosevelt’s Secret War: FDR and World War II Espionage and Casey: The Lives and Secrets of William J. Casey: From the OSS to the CIA.
I actually listened to the audiobook, turning it on every time I was alone in my car. Toward the end though I had to bring it inside to finish. Listening was nearly as good as watching a play or a movie. The reader, Lou Cariou, brought just the right tone to this historical book. I enjoyed it thoroughly.
This is perhaps the fifth book on FDR I have listened to or read. True to the title, the focus is on how the women in his life shaped his course in life, beginning of course with his domineering mother Sara. Persico had access to recently discovered letters from FDR to Lucy Mercer Rutherford, the one woman he loved the best and the longest.
Eleanor’s discovery during World War I of her husband’s affair with Lucy Mercer, as devastating as it was, allowed her to separate emotionally from Franklin and create her own life as the most important woman in our country.
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