Popular Culture Review Vol. 28, No. 2, Summer 2017 | Page 42

Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok ( who will be referenced as ER and Hickok ) initially met in 1928 , when Hickok , who was reporting for the Associated Press , landed the “ first formal interview with Eleanor Roosevelt on November 7 , the day after FDR won election as governor of New York ” ( Golay 1 ). Both women had experienced betrayal in their personal relationships during the previous decades . As Rodger Streitmatter notes in his 1998 collection of edited letters between ER and Hickok , Empty Without You : The Intimate Letters of Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok , “ Eleanor had discovered [ in her mid-thirties ] that her husband , FDR , was having an affair and had agreed to continue the marriage — but not sexual relations with [ him ]” ( Streitmatter xx ). Ironically , ER discovered FDR ’ s infidelity by “ stumbl [ ing ] upon a packet of lightly scented [ hidden ] letters that documented [ FDR ’ s ] affair with the very young and very beautiful Lucy Page Mercer ” ( Streitmatter 1 ). 7 Hickok ’ s betrayal came from the abandonment of her live-in companion of eight years , Ellie Morse , a woman from a very wealthy family who had dropped out of Wellesley College to work at the Minneapolis Tribute , where she met Hickok ( Streitmatter xix ). 8
In the summer of 1932 , Hickok was assigned to FDR ’ s Presidential Campaign , though , as Michael Golay describes in America 1933 : The Great Depression , Lorena Hickok , Eleanor Roosevelt , and the Shaping of the New Deal , Hickok “ found herself drawn more to the candidate ’ s wife than to the candidate himself ” ( 9 ). As the women grew closer , the pressure of juggling public journalistic duties with growing intimacy began to take its toll , and Hickok decided to leave the Associated Press in 1933 . ER arranged for Harry Hopkins , friend of the presidency and head of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration , “ to offer [ Hickok ] a job as chief investigator for the agency ” ( Streitmatter 33 ), where Hickok was assigned to travel around the country to report on economic conditions and FERA status in various cities . 9
7
Mercer was social secretary to ER . “ In that capacity , [ Mercer ] helped ER with the social obligations associated with her position as spouse of the assistant secretary of the navy . When necessary [ Mercer ] also served as the extra woman at the Roosevelts ’ dinner parties ” (“ Lucy Page Mercer Rutherfurd ( 1891 – 1948 )”).
8
Morse , “ frightened by [ Hickok ’ s ] chronic depression and emotional flare-ups , had walked out in 1926 ” ( Streitmatter xx ) and “ renewed her acquaintance with a childhood friend from a Minneapolis dance class twenty years earlier and then eloped with him ,” leaving Hickok “ in shambles ” ( Streitmatter 4 ).
9
Hickok was hired to travel around “ the country to gauge the effectiveness of the nation ’ s relief programs and then write detailed reports on her findings for [ Harry ] Hopkins , identifying which programs were working and which were not ” ( Streitmatter 34 ). Hickok ’ s Relief Program reports and public communication were sent to ER , “ who often showed them to Franklin . . . [ who often ] read them out loud at Cabinet meetings .” The reports offered a very different perspective and tone than the second set of pages that Hickok regularly composed , “ at the end of the day and often while lying in bed ” to ER ( Stretmatter 34 ). Streitmatter notes that “[ b ] etween trips around the country ,
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