What do you think?
Rate this book
Franklin and Lucy: President Roosevelt, Mrs. Rutherfurd, and the Other Remarkable Women in His Life
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was arguably the greatest figure of the twentieth century. While FDR’s official circle was predominantly male, it was his relationships with women–particularly with Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd–that most vividly bring to light the human being beneath this towering statesman. It is no coincidence that Rutherfurd was with Roosevelt the day he died in Warm Springs, Georgia, along with two other close women companions. In Franklin and Lucy , acclaimed author and historian Joseph E. Persico explores FDR’s romance with Lucy Rutherfurd, which was far deeper and lasted much longer than was previously acknowledged. Persico’s provocative conclusions about their relationship are informed by a revealing range of sources, including never-before-published letters and documents from Lucy Rutherfurd’s estate that attest to the intensity and scope of the affair.
FDR’s connection with Lucy also creates an opportunity for Persico to take a more penetrating look at the other women in FDR’s life. We come to see more clearly how FDR’s infidelity as a husband contributed to Eleanor’s eventual transformation from a repressed Victorian to perhaps the greatest American woman of her century; how the shaping hand of FDR’s strong-willed mother helped to imbue him with the resolve to overcome personal and public adversity throughout his life; and how other women around FDR, including his “surrogate spouse,” Missy LeHand, and his close confidante, the obscure Margaret “Daisy” Suckley, completed the world that he inhabited.
Franklin and Lucy is an extraordinary look at the private life of a leader who continues to fascinate scholars and the general public alike. In focusing on Lucy Rutherfurd and the myriad women who mattered to Roosevelt, Persico paints a more intimate portrait than we have heretofore had of this enigmatic giant of American history.
FDR’s connection with Lucy also creates an opportunity for Persico to take a more penetrating look at the other women in FDR’s life. We come to see more clearly how FDR’s infidelity as a husband contributed to Eleanor’s eventual transformation from a repressed Victorian to perhaps the greatest American woman of her century; how the shaping hand of FDR’s strong-willed mother helped to imbue him with the resolve to overcome personal and public adversity throughout his life; and how other women around FDR, including his “surrogate spouse,” Missy LeHand, and his close confidante, the obscure Margaret “Daisy” Suckley, completed the world that he inhabited.
Franklin and Lucy is an extraordinary look at the private life of a leader who continues to fascinate scholars and the general public alike. In focusing on Lucy Rutherfurd and the myriad women who mattered to Roosevelt, Persico paints a more intimate portrait than we have heretofore had of this enigmatic giant of American history.
464 pages, Hardcover
Published April 29, 2008
2 people are currently reading
9 people want to read
About the author
Joseph E. Persico
37 books37 followersJoseph E. Persico was the author of Roosevelt’s Secret War: FDR and World War II Espionage; Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour: Armistice Day, 1918–World War I and Its Violent Climax; Piercing the Reich; and Nuremberg: Infamy on Trial, which was made into a television docudrama. He also collaborated with Colin Powell on his autobiography, My American Journey. He lives in Guilderland, New York.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 4, 2025
Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd was the love of Frankin D. Roosevelt’s life and the one to whom he reached out over many years when he needed comfort and spiritual refreshment. But his wife Eleanor —even as they came to lead mostly separate lives— was also a touchstone and a constant who provided “an “invisible undergirding still held them together, often indiscernible to outsiders, without which both structures would collapse” (198).
Author Joseph E. Persico states, “Undeniably, the affair involved deception breaking society’s rules, and causing pain.” However, as he quotes historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr., “Eleanor Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt and Lucy Mercer all emerge from the story with honor.”
In some ways, this is not an easy history to read. Of course, the Mercer affair was devastating for Eleanor when she first found out about it in 1918, and again after her husband’s death when she learned it had been going on during all the years she had believed it was over. And Lucy was not her only source of sorrow as there were other women as well.
This study contains some basic information about FDRs political policies and accomplishments, but Persico’s goal is admittedly to chronicle the details of the early lives of both Franklin and Eleanor and emphasize the President’s relationships with her as well as with several others. Besides Lucy, there were, most notably, his own personal secretary, Missy LeHand , and distant cousin and personal assistant Daisy Stuckley.
Roosevelt, as deputy secretary of the Navy, left for Europe in 1918, said good-bye to Eleanor and their five children, and also to an unnamed woman with whom he was in love (6). Upon his return, he was feeling ill with the widespread Spanish flu, so Eleanor put him to bed and began to unpack his suitcase. It was at that moment that she found love letters written by Lucy Mercer—Eleanor's own former personal secretary—wrapped in a ribbon and addressed to her husband. She offered Franklin a divorce, but his mother Sarah Roosevelt, an imperious matriarch who always got her way, forbid it. This was undoubtedly for the best. “A divorce would have been unthinkable in the moral climate of the times; would have altered FDR’s great destiny” (356). Their conjugal life ended upon Eleanor’s insistence, but the marriage carried on, Eleanor believing the Lucy affair had ended, and Franklin continuing to deceive her with Lucy and a few others. The polio attack in in 1924 that left his legs paralyzed barely slowed him down in his professional or personal life. Naturally, the question arises, “Could this gravely handicapped man have performed sexually?” The answer verified by several doctors was yes. “He could sustain an erection” (165).
In subsequent years, through the rise of her husband’s Presidential career, Eleanor began a controversial friendship with journalist Lorena “Hick” Hickok with whom she would exchange numerous passionate letters over about 30 years. Although this led to speculation that the two were in a Lesbian union, Perisco clarifies that Hickok was probably Lesbian, but Eleanor was not. “She was just caught up in a relationship that suited her at the time” (214).
The subterfuge of how FDR continued his liaison with the married, then later widowed, Lucy is provided in great detail, including descriptions of how the President’s staff was complicit in sneaking Lucy in and out of the White House over many years without Eleanor’s knowledge or suspicion. Daisy Stuckley, in her own frustrated love of FDR recognized how “FDR and Eleanor loved each other, but had different personalities. And the fact that they could not relax together or play together, is the tragedy of their joint lives, for I believe, from everything that I have seen of them that they had everything else in common. It was probably a matter of personalities, of a certain lack of humor on her part. I cannot blame either of them. They are both remarkable people—sky high about average” (354).
In this day and age, it would seem incredible that during his lifetime, the press corps would leave FDR’s personal life alone, and that revelations about his love affairs surfaced only after his legacy in history had been security established. As for Eleanor, she lived on another 17 years after her husband’s death in a flurry of her own political and humanitarian projects. In her memoirs, she never mentioned Lucy.
Author Joseph E. Persico states, “Undeniably, the affair involved deception breaking society’s rules, and causing pain.” However, as he quotes historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr., “Eleanor Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt and Lucy Mercer all emerge from the story with honor.”
In some ways, this is not an easy history to read. Of course, the Mercer affair was devastating for Eleanor when she first found out about it in 1918, and again after her husband’s death when she learned it had been going on during all the years she had believed it was over. And Lucy was not her only source of sorrow as there were other women as well.
This study contains some basic information about FDRs political policies and accomplishments, but Persico’s goal is admittedly to chronicle the details of the early lives of both Franklin and Eleanor and emphasize the President’s relationships with her as well as with several others. Besides Lucy, there were, most notably, his own personal secretary, Missy LeHand , and distant cousin and personal assistant Daisy Stuckley.
Roosevelt, as deputy secretary of the Navy, left for Europe in 1918, said good-bye to Eleanor and their five children, and also to an unnamed woman with whom he was in love (6). Upon his return, he was feeling ill with the widespread Spanish flu, so Eleanor put him to bed and began to unpack his suitcase. It was at that moment that she found love letters written by Lucy Mercer—Eleanor's own former personal secretary—wrapped in a ribbon and addressed to her husband. She offered Franklin a divorce, but his mother Sarah Roosevelt, an imperious matriarch who always got her way, forbid it. This was undoubtedly for the best. “A divorce would have been unthinkable in the moral climate of the times; would have altered FDR’s great destiny” (356). Their conjugal life ended upon Eleanor’s insistence, but the marriage carried on, Eleanor believing the Lucy affair had ended, and Franklin continuing to deceive her with Lucy and a few others. The polio attack in in 1924 that left his legs paralyzed barely slowed him down in his professional or personal life. Naturally, the question arises, “Could this gravely handicapped man have performed sexually?” The answer verified by several doctors was yes. “He could sustain an erection” (165).
In subsequent years, through the rise of her husband’s Presidential career, Eleanor began a controversial friendship with journalist Lorena “Hick” Hickok with whom she would exchange numerous passionate letters over about 30 years. Although this led to speculation that the two were in a Lesbian union, Perisco clarifies that Hickok was probably Lesbian, but Eleanor was not. “She was just caught up in a relationship that suited her at the time” (214).
The subterfuge of how FDR continued his liaison with the married, then later widowed, Lucy is provided in great detail, including descriptions of how the President’s staff was complicit in sneaking Lucy in and out of the White House over many years without Eleanor’s knowledge or suspicion. Daisy Stuckley, in her own frustrated love of FDR recognized how “FDR and Eleanor loved each other, but had different personalities. And the fact that they could not relax together or play together, is the tragedy of their joint lives, for I believe, from everything that I have seen of them that they had everything else in common. It was probably a matter of personalities, of a certain lack of humor on her part. I cannot blame either of them. They are both remarkable people—sky high about average” (354).
In this day and age, it would seem incredible that during his lifetime, the press corps would leave FDR’s personal life alone, and that revelations about his love affairs surfaced only after his legacy in history had been security established. As for Eleanor, she lived on another 17 years after her husband’s death in a flurry of her own political and humanitarian projects. In her memoirs, she never mentioned Lucy.
May 17, 2025
The author writes most of the book in a voyeristic style. Will Franklin find sexual release?!?!?🙄 but the reflective ending of the book adds another dimension. Rather sad for all concerned.
November 14, 2025
Very detailed account of FDR’s mistresses, very dramatic and engaging storytelling
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews