ELEANOR IN THE VILLAGE: Eleanor Roosevelt’s Search for Freedom and Identity in New York’s Greenwich Village, by Jan Jarboe Russell
A Mini-Book Review by Litchatte Writer, Paul Ho
A little family history: The Roosevelts came over from Holland in the 17th century and settled in New Amsterdam at the southern tip of Manhattan. They built their fortune importing sugar from the West Indies. There were two main branches of the family; the Delano Roosevelts, (or the Hyde Park Roosevelts) which included Franklin. The other branch was Teddy’s family, (or the Oyster Bay Roosevelts,) which included Eleanor. Teddy was Eleanor’s uncle and godfather.
Eleanor grew up in what we would now call a dysfunctional household. Her snooty mother made her feel ugly and nicknamed her “Granny.” By her fifteenth birthday, Eleanor was six feet tall in bare feet and very shy. Her father was a loving man, but a hopeless alcoholic who eventually jumped out the window of his apartment and died from his injuries. Eleanor, who was not permitted to attend his funeral, was raised by her grandmother. She became a brilliant and hard-working student.
In her early twenties, she and her cousin Franklin fell in love and married. At the wedding, Teddy told FDR, “Well Franklin, there’s nothing like keeping the name in the family.”
After Franklin got polio, Eleanor discovered that he had been having an affair with his personal secretary, Lucy Mercer. Eleanor and Franklin talked it out and decided to remain a “political” couple, but agreed to live separate personal lives otherwise. The arrangement continued until Franklin’s death at the age of 53. This was perhaps a template for future presidential marriages like the Kennedy’s, and the Clinton’s. If you dig around a little, you might also discover extra-marital affairs during the Eisenhower and Johnson administrations too. Further back in history, there were many more.
This brings us to the Greenwich Village part of our story which is the main reason I picked up this book. I wanted to know a little more about her life in the Village, partly because I had always heard rumors about her sexuality. I was also curious about the atmosphere of the Village back then. It was, after all, one of the most open-minded and liberal neighborhoods in the country, maybe in the world.
Eleanor kept an apartment on Washington Square for most of her adult life. She became very close to several lesbian couples who advocated for women’s rights. Several of them lived in her building. The book said she had conflict between her old life with Franklin and her new life with the “New Women.”
As to whether her affairs with women were overtly sexual, that is difficult to determine. At one point she told her daughter Anna that “sex is an ordeal to be borne.” That could have meant any number of things, I suppose. After all, she did have six children.
The book also discusses (without coming to any definitive conclusion) whether Franklin was actually able to have sex after he contracted polio. There was talk of catheters and such. The author also stated unequivocally that Eleanor was at least bisexual. The book quoted some passionate love letters that Eleanor wrote to her female lovers. I had no idea such documents existed. She had at least two long term relationships with Lesbian women.
Edgar Hoover was obsessed with her affairs, both personal and political, and her FBI file contains over 3900 pages. Homosexuality was a criminal offense at that time. Public exposure would have most likely decimated FDR’s presidency. She lobbied Franklin to make Hoover go away, because the FBI had been questioning her friends. He complied. The president was also hiding his own romantic affairs, not to mention the hidden fact that he was unable to walk.
I found her story to be sad, yet modern in many ways. The book answered almost all of the questions I had about her personal life without hedging or trying to make her into something she wasn’t. If you’re interested in the Village of the early and mid 20th Century, or in Mrs. Roosevelt’s eventful personal or political life, you could do far worse than this 194 page biography. Please send comments to Paul or to Litchatte in the dialogue box below.
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