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CLOSEST COMPANION

Name: CLOSEST COMPANION
Author: Geoffrey C. Ward
ISBN: 0-395-66080-7

THE UNKNOWN STORY OF THE INTIMATE FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT AND MARGARET SUCKLEY

edited by Geoffrey C. Ward ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1995

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FDR's life was like a multi-sided house whose shape could not be discerned in one glimpse. This volume of letters and diary entries, shows readers a side rarely seen before. Margaret ``Daisy'' Suckley—FDR's sixth cousin, upstate New York friend, and archivist at his Hyde Park library—lurked for years at the margins of the crowded field of Rooseveltiana, but that is likely to change now. After she died at the age of 99 in 1991, her diaries and letters to and from FDR were discovered at her ancestral Rhinebeck home. They have now been edited with helpful annotations by Roosevelt biographer Ward (A First-Class Temperament, 1989, etc.). Although the material describes no physical intimacy, Daisy and Franklin's relationship grew warmer following a long car ride and hilltop encounter at Hyde Park in September 1935. In the last years of his second term, their flirtatious correspondence included plans for a cottage on top of what they called ``Our Hill.'' Because Daisy was quiet and physically unprepossessing, however, their relationship sparked none of the gossip engendered by the president's other relationships with women. Particularly during WW II, she provided the unquestioning devotion the president lacked because of Eleanor's frequent absences and the deaths of his mother and his secretary-confidante, Missy LeHand. FDR trusted her implicitly, disclosing his doubts about winning and surviving a fourth term, his longing for a quieter postWhite House career (he thought of quitting the presidency to lead the newly formed UN), even the imminent invasion of Normandy in 1944. Her unique access reveals an unbuttoned FDR: venting otherwise carefully guarded frustration and loneliness, plying White House guests with cocktails and stories, secretly visiting old flame Lucy Mercer Rutherford, and rapidly deteriorating under the burden of winning the war. Hardly unbiased, but an important close-quarters view of a complex president and human being. (b&w illustrations, not seen)

Pub Date: April 1, 1995

ISBN: 0-395-66080-7

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1995

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE VIETNAM WAR
by Geoffrey C. Ward & Ken Burns

- BOOK REVIEW
THE ROOSEVELTS
by Geoffrey C. Ward ; Ken Burns

- BOOK REVIEW
THE WAR
by Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.