Franklin & Lucy

June 30, 2008
Historian Persico offers a detailed look at the very colorful and expansive personal life of one of the most memorable and beloved presidents in American history. Len Cariou's reading is firm and authoritative, commanding an air of respect from the listener and in turn relating Persico's findings with absolute believability. Cariou's tone is unwavering, his voice well-defined and perfectly pronounced. The result is a story so thoroughly engaging that listening becomes compulsive. The result is endlessly informative, offering juicy tidbits about otherwise unknown occurrences in FDR's existence. Persico has clearly done his homework and unearthed some fascinating information, and Cariou succeeds in bringing the tales to life without editorializing. A Random House hardcover (Reviews, Jan. 21).

January 21, 2008
Persico (Roosevelt's Secret War
) engagingly and eloquently narrates the tangled relationships between Franklin and the various women to whom he became close, including his mother; his wife; Lucy Mercer (the young Eleanor Roosevelt's social secretary during WWI and later Mrs. Winthrop Rutherford); his longtime secretary, Missy LeHand; and his distant cousin Margaret (Daisy) Suckley. These relationships have been examined before; the major revelation of the volume—backed up by documents recently discovered by Mercer's descendants—is that her relationship with FDR continued throughout his life, even after it was supposedly ended by Franklin at the demand of his mother, who threatened to cut off both his income and his inheritance were he to leave his wife and family. (Previously, it was believed that FDR's relationship with Mercer only rekindled once Franklin's mother died, at the very end of his own life.) Another intriguing aspect of the book is Persico's informed speculation on how Franklin's frequently nonchalant womanizing affected Eleanor, who appears, quite possibly, to have pursued several relationships of her own, both hetero- and homosexual. In sum, Persico offers what will prove an important, lasting addition to the literature of the Roosevelts.

Starred review from April 15, 2008
A more sensational title for this latest book from Persico ("Roosevelt's Secret War: FDR and World War II Espionage") might have been "All the President's Women," for it discusses not only the relationship between FDR and Lucy Mercer (later Rutherfurd) but, as its subtitle indicates, "the other remarkable women in his life." Instead of sensationalizing these characters' lives, however, Persico seeks to understand them. The first and foremost woman in FDR's life was his doting mother, Sara. The second, of course, was his wife, Eleanor. Unfortunately, she faced the classic problems of both a headstrong mother-in-law and an unfaithful husband. Almost as in a novel, in 1918 Eleanor accidentally discovered her husband's affair with Lucy Mercer, Eleanor's social secretary, then offered him a divorce he could not grant her owing to the era, his financial dependence on his mother, and his political ambition. As the author of ten books, Persico is well equipped to tell this story, and his primary achievement here is in putting these women in the context of their own lives and the life of FDR. This sensitive narrative will leave readers with an even greater appreciation of FDR, Eleanor, and those they knew. Highly recommended for all libraries. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 1/08.]William D. Pederson, Louisiana State Univ., Shreveport

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