Cspans d third in of riftian survey residential leadership. Doris concerns goodwin when he asked her to be his wife again and stop traveling take care of and him to say yes to him. I mean, i know that he loved her. Know she still loved him, and i want to say why didnt you do it . I wish you had done it. For him i want to understand why he couldnt share himself more fully with anyone. Most brilliant, most charming, most sparkling personality on the surface. Thought how warm he was. I wanted to understand franklin and eleanors relationship, which has been to understand the extended family is it what theme upon was a sense that second family quarters of the white house were really like a Residential Hotel during these about seven s People Living there all of whom are intimate friends of either eleanor. Or that was new and fun for me. If you had to ask a question about either one of them about relationships that theyve had with other people would you be most interested in . Its not simply lucy mercer, romantic central figure in his life because she had an affair with him back in 918 and it almost broke up eleanors marriage, but theres another woman that i think had an even more central role to life, and that was his secretary, missy lehand. She had started working for him 20 years old nly in 1920. She loved him all the rest of her life. She never married. In washington knew really his other ife. It seemed what the reader was going to get was i hoped a sense agohat it was like 50 years to be in the white house and because each of these rooms was ccupied by somebody very important to either franklin or eleanor, i wanted everybody to were, to see they that they could Wander Around in the middle of the corners at night and talk to one another. Was this . Ar 1940 to 1945. These rooms depict that period time . T as you can see here on the one end, you have eleanor and right bedroom, across the hall is lorraina hickcock. Who was lorraine why, and what was their relationship . The second floor of the house . In fact, in 1933 she was considered the leading female reporter in the country. About 200 pounds. She smoked cigars. She played poker with the guys. She was really smart. What happened is she came to interview franklin and eleanor uring the campaign at 32, and eleanor, as she became really close friends. She fell in love with eleanor, and more importantly, she eleanor become the activist fist lady that she did. It was lorraina who came up with holding of eleanor press conferences every week. Only female reporters could come. Female generation of journalists got their start because every newspaper had to hire a female reporter. The one who came up with the idea of a syndicated column that eleanor wrote every day, the day that her husband died, and really helped eleanor transform the role of ceremonialady from a one activist live in ng did he there, and who was he . Harry hopkins had been roosevelts chief new deal man the certain sense during 1930s. He was the head of the work progress administration. He had been a social worker originally. The war broke out in europe in may of 1940, hawkins was staying overnight that night at house, and roosevelt decided that he wanted him nearby. Want him to go home. It was really unprecedented. A makes kissinger look like mildmannered guy in terms of the kind of power that hopkins had. To as incredibly loyal roosevelt. How long did he live on the second floor of the white house . 1940 to s there from 1942 end of 1942 when he got married. He stayed for about six months with his new wife, but she hertually wanted a house of own . Heres another bedroom called the rose room, and you showed it churchill, sarah, who is . Roosevelts mother . And martha. Right. Ell, thats a pretty room . Ting room, that she had come in exile for norway. Her husband was the crowned her father was the king of norway. Her son is currently the king of now. Ay she was beautiful. She was longlegged. Roosevelt always liked his women i l, or so it seemed, and think she had a gayspirited kind of conversation that he eleanor yed, and somehow understood that he needed that kind of companionship. He would visit on weekends and keep him company in the movies, keep him company at dinners at night, often again when eleanor this would be her suite. But when churchill came, no one else stayed in the suite. Hurchill was an incredible character during this period of ime. When he would finally leave after being in the suite for three or four weeks, the entire white house staff would have to 7 it hours in order to recuperate from churchills visit you mentioned you had a quote mark in the book that the relationship between princess fdr was f norway and romantic . Some of the people who lived n the white house at that time suggested that she was his girlfriend, that there was a two,flirtation between the and i suspected that was the element of the relationship. It wasnt somebody he was with, like missy lehand. It wasnt some political partner. It wasnt some old friend and companion. T was a flirtatious elationship. When anna was a youring every young girl, eleanor told her the lucy mercer and the fact that her father had this and r with lucy long ago, anna had taken her mothers sighted. The two had grown so close that they wrote each other letters times a week, and they saw each other four or five times a year, even when anna the other coast. What happened is in the middle f the war after eleanor rejected franklins quest to stay home and be his wife again, asked so lonely that he their daughter, anna, to come and take missy lehands place. Only in her he was early 40s and had a stroke, and she could never speak again, it devastating ose things for roosevelt during the war years, and because he was so lonely without missy, and his just after lso died missys stroke, he asked anna to come and stay in the white house. Is . What happened some way she became his fathers her fathers daughter. Legs. D long she was tall. Where do you live . Concorde, massachusetts. Right on maine street right near all began why concorde . Well, i think it was a compromise. I love the city. Outside of tually new york, and my husband loves the real country. In maine. Refer living concorde seemed to be near enough to boston that i could have my city life and near could to country that he feel he was really living outside of the suburb. More country than suburb. He is having a great time. Being portrayed as an actor the big screen feeling like decades have dropped off his life. He is a writer. Where did you meet him . Harvard. He was teaching at harvard. A course on the presidency, and taught some American Government courses, and e came to finish a book, and i had an office at this little kennedy institute, and he had an office right next to mine. Thats how it happened dedicate the book to three people . Right who are they . Three sons probably the most important people in my life. One is in his mid 20s. One is a freshman at amherst the youngest one, thank god, is still at home in high school. I dont want it to end. 4, 6, and 8 ere again. And how many books have you written . Three two . At were the other well, the first one was Lyndon Johnson and the american out of the hat came experience that i will forever treasure of having been 23 and years old and working for president johnson in the white house and then helping him with his memoirs. I still keep thinking johnson is still around. I keep thinking he is thinking roosevelt is 700 pages on me with only 350 pages. How can you do that . That was the first book, and it a great experience to try and understand that giant of a in his i found so sad retirement. It was almost like he had once g left in his life politics was taken from him. That whole experience i think my mind forever and made up the first book, and then the second one was the fitzgerald and the kennedys, and threegeneration kennedy family. Reasons why f the this book on the roosevelts means so much is its the first time there was an ordinary historian without the advantage johnson or theon kennedy family. Its been fun is there new information in the book . Yes. , i think definitely by choosing this period of time and by american n the homefront rather than the battle front for all the thousands of books that have been written there have war ii, been very few that focus on what and most ere at home, of those have been essay kind of books, like a chapter on civil rights, a chapter on the japanese incarceration camps, on in the factories, but there have been very little evidence of trying to understand leadership and how he mobilizeded his democracy. Somewhere thats his greatest a certain sense for the war. Even more than the strategy of he got our lf, how country to produce the weapons for the war. Lots what won the war in of ways. Turning around a peace economy isolationist economy and omehow making it so productive s a great story. What happened is at the end of the day there would be a white house usher who would record everything that happened the day. Roosevelt awakens at 7 00, has a massage at 7 15, goes to breakfast. Then they record who he had lunch with, who he had dinner with, and then you could use as a foundation to go, for example, suppose he had lunch simpson or i knew they all had diaries. Eleanor d record that was with joe, and i knew that he had a diary. N some ways it was like the detective tool. It was there for anybody to see. Theyre public. They hadnt been used before. Easy and wonderful henry morganthal is the subject of one of my favorite stories in the book because roosevelt had an annual poker every year, and it would always be held on the day that the congress was going to was that nd the rule whoever was ahead of the moment, the speaker of the house called adjourn would win. Morganthal was way ahead. Is adjourning at w59 30, and he just retends theres somebody else going. I cant talk to you, says im in poker game. F the they continue playing. Midnight, roosevelt starts win, whispered, and he brings the phone, and he says, oh, many roosevelt wins the game. Total manipulation so angry he resigned until roosevelt charmed him back into it. Camaraderie at the time. They could play poker together as well as Work Together i remember somebody else resigning at one point and fdr him a letter, and he writes back. I dont know if i can find it. Fluttery all over. Did he talk that way . Amazing. Icys resigned several times. He would get upset about policy issues and resign. Him a very ote gracious letter saying you cant resign. I need you. Me. re so important to youre absolutely right. Back he said i got fluttery all over. I couldnt believe it. T showed an awe that they felt for this man that was still their president. Letter,icy your gratefully said makes me feel all fluttered. To have you write about me as is like an accolade to . Spirit. I worked in terms of and the wonderful thing thats in hyde park, new feel is that it made you like you were going in time. The place, the house where roosevelt was born, the place eleanors cottage looks exactly as it looked when they were there. Ometimes when you are in the middle of working at a library room, and you take a walk around hese environments, you can really feel like youre back 50 years in time. It was so wonderful. Then there were these little that you und the area stay in right across from the roosevelt library, and you do feel like this is what a scholar to be doing. Living right at the place where subjects lived themselves. Me it was a three and a half hour drive in the sudden honest river far below. The house where roosevelt was which sits only a few feet from the library. Thats the cottage that roosevelt has built, and typical cottage actually was 22 rooms. It wasnt a small little cottage. S at happened is in the 1920 after his affair with lucy mercer and they decided to stay eleanor the gave freedom to go outside the marriage to find fulfillment, and she became involved with a group of beenwomen who were activists. League of women voters, fighting labor orm clauses, child laws. Sarah dell nor roosevelt, franklins mother, always looked women. Se they would come into the house with their saddle shoes on and their tweed outfits, and they werent the kind of fancy people she was used to. What happened is roosevelt uncomfortable eleanor felt about having her friends getting the big house and suggested that he would build and it own cottage, turned out to be this beautiful 22room house. About a mile and a half or so big house and it allowed eleanor for the first time in her life to have a home of her own. The place, and after she died she actually lived on until she herself died. Jo in notices years in the war aboutthat you are writing here, domestically, where did Franklin Dell more nor roosevelt their time besides the white house and hyde park. Hyde park was the most for both of ce them. Thats the most important place. How would he get there . There by train and get there in wash wish at night, and it at would reach hyde park by the morning. He would be he would sleep on the train. Traveling by train. He had his own compartment because of his polio and his paralysis. He didnt life staff moving. He hated airplanes. He could feel grounded on the train. Opposite. As just the she liked to get places fast. To travel by plane. Plane . When he was 37 years old he contracted polio, and one of the hings i understood more by doing this book than i ever had before is how much that paralysis was a part of his everyday life. I, like so many people in the country, had assumed that he had conquered the polio. He couldnt even get out of bed the morning without turning his body to the side of the bed and being helped into his get chair by the valet to to the bathroom. He couldnt even really walk. And if hick braces on, he leaned on the arms of two strong people, he could appear to be maneuvering himself forward. My the most extraordinary moments when i was doing research on the book, i whitney, who tsy had been married to jimmy roosevelt, the roosevelts she t son, and she said asked him once in the middle of the war how do you fall asleep at night with all the burdens face, and as to soon as he told her the answer, i knew that that polio was still huge part of his imagination because he described that he had his own med of counting sheem. Is a young gine he boy again at hyde park, and it was his favorite sledding hill behind his house that he i have led to the hudson river far below. In the presidency as he is he ing asleep at night, would imagine he is a young boy again getting on that sled, and he said he knew every curve of the hill. Would get the sled to the bottom of the hill, he would pick it up, run to the top, and o it over and over again until he fell asleep. We need to get the rutherford story. Story . She had an estate in new and he somehow he loved to figure out maps. He loved old geography things. He figured out the Railroad Line and knew that he went along a different pattern, and he had to convince the secret service it for him to do this. That he could spend an afternoon with lucy. Last yearot until the of his life. I think some people had assumed and myself included that he known lucy all of his life. I heard about this affair back in 1918. I knew he had seen her and was her when he died. I thought maybe it had happened period way through that of time. The truth was that he had kept his pledge to eleanor not to see her again. Last year of he his life. After eleanor had refused to be with him and be his wife again, back into had come the white house, and after he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. Year of hishat last life, i believe he knew in that year that he was dying. His brother had been a wealthy businessman. Comes from an old family. She was widowed. When he saw her then what it did more than anything was to awaken in him a memory of hat it was like when he was young before the polio . He had known lucy three years before his polio attack, and now heart was giving way. He decided he wanted sheer regularly how does he start the original affair with her . She had been a social eleanor. Y working for what happened was when he was assistant secretary of the navy, Eleanor Franklin moved to 1914. Ngton in eleanor felt worried about the whole Social Circle of invitations that she would get because you had to know which a list, b list you assistant go to as secretary of the navy, so she hired lucy mercer who came from blue blood family in washington and yet needed money because her father had been an alcoholic, and lucy came three a week and worked the roosevelts. A relationship developed between lucy and franklin affair sf had as far as we know it was sometime probably two or three years in that period of time 18le. N 14 and it came to an bankrupt end when eleanor happened to come upon a that lucylove letters had written to franklin. She later said when she opened hese letters that the bottom fell out of her world, and she actually offered franklin a meetly. Im convinced it was the last thing he wanted. I think he had never meant for he marriage to be over by his relationship with lucy. Eleanor during that period of her life was still haubted by insecurities of hoern childhood where her mother had told her she was ugly and her and theas an alcoholic, motherinlaw sarah was being intrusive about the kids, and it was hard for her to develop a herself, and so i tonk franklin felt attracted this happy, young woman, lucy mercer, but when confronted with the thought of losing eleanor, thing he wanted when did back there in hose days did what did the public know . Did they know about polio or the braces on his legs . Lucy mercer . About did they know about missy lehand norway . Cess martha of this is one of the most interesting things to me in the world. Certain members of the press mercer. Ut lucy they knew that missy lehand the white house. They knew there was an unconventional set of relationships and they knew that a paraplegic, and there was a certain set sense that a president s private life life, and unless whatever he is doing has an impact on his public activities, i talked to one old reporter who judge . O are we to the reason they were allowed to feel that way was not a single him in his r showed wheelchair, on his braces, being crippled. Like an unspoken code of honor on the part of the press that the president wasnt that way. If a young photographer came along and tried to snap a picture of the president , sometimes reporters would see actually carried from a car into a building like a child, and yet they never took a picture. A young guy came along and tried to that, an older guy would knock the camera to the ground. The result was a kind of dignity to the office of the presidency then that i think is really both the ght now on side of the press and the president. Roosevelt understood the importance of holding his secure. Life he would never have thought about talking about his mothers domineeringingness or his about lucy mercer. I mean, there was a reserve that better at erved us time did mrs. Roosevelt write her column herself . Oh, did she ever. See the ead them and only way it was possible for her to write that column was really a recording of what she did during the day. Only reason the column worked because it wasn