While most of the people in White Houses are historical figures, I’m pretty sure that the Roosevelt cousin Parker Fiske, a key character in the book, is fictional. Hickok describes herself as “the brave and battered little dinghy” to Eleanor’s “lighthouse.” At times, Hickok even lived in the White House, but in Bloom’s telling, loving Eleanor was not easy-the beloved First Lady always had many demands on her attention. Their relationship heated up when Hickok accompanied Eleanor on a train trip by the time FDR was in office, it became increasingly clear that Hickok could not cover the administration objectively, so she quit her job with the Associated Press. She began covering Eleanor full-time during Franklin’s first presidential campaign. Assigned to interview Eleanor Roosevelt shortly after Franklin had been elected governor of New York, Hickok found herself drawn to her subject.
She eventually became a successful journalist, the first woman to have a byline in the New York Times. (Franklin Roosevelt, in this telling, is having a long-term affair with his secretary, Missy LeHand, another allegedly-romantic pairing which has been debated by historians.)īloom’s novel is narrated by Hickok, who describes her rough upbringing-her mother died when she was quite young, and she left home at the age of 14, escaping her abusive father. The Hick/Roosevelt relationship has been explored in books like Empty Without You: The Intimate Letters Of Eleanor Roosevelt And Lorena Hickok and Eleanor and Hick: The Love Affair That Shaped a First Lady, as well as a play, “Hick: A Love Story.” Now comes Amy Bloom with a fictionalized account of their relationship, which definitely comes down on the “yep, they were lovers” side of the equation. If I just could take you in my arms… Someday perhaps fate will be kind & let us arrange a life more to our liking.”
Sample: “Hick darling, I just talked to you, darling, it was so good to hear your voice. Here’s an article featuring excerpts from a number of their more romantic letters. While historian Doris Kearns Goodwin declared that “whether Hick and Eleanor went beyond kisses and hugs” can never be known, others find the correspondence makes a convincing claim for Roosevelt’s queerness. Did they or didn’t they? The question of whether or not Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok were more than friends has been a hot topic ever since their passionate letters were made public in the late 1970s.
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