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Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd: Eleanor's Rival, FDR's Other Love
What more could there be to know about FDR, given how exhaustively his life has been written about? As it happens, there is more and that focuses on Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd, the queen of her Washington social circle, later FDR's friend and love-and Eleanor's rival, as the title of Christine Totten's work points out. In Lucy Mercer Eleanor's Rival, FDR's Other Love, Totten presents a carefully structured case for a deep and lasting but chaste love between Lucy and FDR, against the prevailing view that they were clandestine lovers. Totten's research into the personal memories of the Rutherfurd family and the public holdings of the FDR Library establishes a new rich understanding of Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd--her early life, her education, and her role in the social and political scene in Washington. This work gives Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd her due, as a woman in her own right as well as FDR's valued soul mate and friend.
418 pages, Paperback
Published July 20, 2018
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March 8, 2019
Most people who know the name Lucy Mercer probably think of her as the Other Woman who came between Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. We know that Sara was a domineering mother, trying to control her son and certainly her daughter-in-law, and that Eleanor was the unfortunate wife betrayed by a husband with a roving eye. Except that none of them were that one-dimensional.
In this book, we see Sara as a doting mother who was probably a bit over-protective of her only child and who had encouraged the relationship between him and Eleanor; Eleanor is a somewhat overwhelmed young mother of 6 (5 of whom survived) who appreciates the help of her mother-in-law and who needs to feel cherished by her husband; Franklin is a young man trying to establish a career and support his family ; Lucy is an impoverished southern gentlewoman forced to make her own way in the world since the family fortune is long gone.
Christine Totten treats all these people with fairness as she presents her argument that although Lucy and Franklin were in love, it was most likely a chaste affair, a great love never consummated. Well researched, this book delves into the backgrounds of the three to explore motivations and to read between the lines of their diaries, journals, etc. It's interesting to discover how many of the commonly-believed "facts" about the affair came about from unsubstantiated remarks (gossip, in other words) that got passed along enough to make them seem legitimate. The Oyster Bay Roosevelts are blamed somewhat for this misinformation, as well as some of the Roosevelt children who published their own memoirs. Whether the affair was a physical one or not is for the reader to decide. At the very least, this book gives a more nuanced view of these historic personalities.
In this book, we see Sara as a doting mother who was probably a bit over-protective of her only child and who had encouraged the relationship between him and Eleanor; Eleanor is a somewhat overwhelmed young mother of 6 (5 of whom survived) who appreciates the help of her mother-in-law and who needs to feel cherished by her husband; Franklin is a young man trying to establish a career and support his family ; Lucy is an impoverished southern gentlewoman forced to make her own way in the world since the family fortune is long gone.
Christine Totten treats all these people with fairness as she presents her argument that although Lucy and Franklin were in love, it was most likely a chaste affair, a great love never consummated. Well researched, this book delves into the backgrounds of the three to explore motivations and to read between the lines of their diaries, journals, etc. It's interesting to discover how many of the commonly-believed "facts" about the affair came about from unsubstantiated remarks (gossip, in other words) that got passed along enough to make them seem legitimate. The Oyster Bay Roosevelts are blamed somewhat for this misinformation, as well as some of the Roosevelt children who published their own memoirs. Whether the affair was a physical one or not is for the reader to decide. At the very least, this book gives a more nuanced view of these historic personalities.
Displaying 1 of 1 review