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I will turn you over to Elizabeth Carol and to david. Margaret is a director of the american ancestors. In the producer of the literary program. I think he used to take the chain to high school. Before our bookstore existed. He is the author of Award Winning biographies. I have no doubt that this book will add to his list of awards. The fellow alumnus. And we will just tell you our own personal connection with Eleanor Roosevelt. When my mom was in junior high she came to visit her school in the bronx. She was a student chosen to escort her through the auditorium to the stage. In an experience that my mother actually talked about for the rest of her life. Without further ado join me in welcoming margaret and beth and david. Youve just actually proved the point ianted to make here to start this wonderful eveng. Thank you so much for having me. Everyby turns out. Has some conneion to Eleanor Roosevelt. You were aware that George Washington had been there. You go around the country. It was always sort of the joke of the 30 30s. Is not just eleanor. Theyegistered deeply on every Single Person she m. And those memories, i grew up in a household in which thought eleanor was related to. I thought she was relative. There was such a sensef her presence. It was then in the infancy and public televisio was in its infancy. The story, and pioneer fashion. This is 1959. It was a place that she cared a great deal about. It was that tv studio and there were cables and plywood and platforms running all through the theater part of the auditorium. My mothers job was to go down every month to new york to prepare the script and pick from her closet one of five identical not particularly, broadway like dresses but more like wash day dresses. To go over the script she have prepared with paula noble the other producer in this time i was about four years old when i went one day to the studio and remember it is among my very earliest memories. It was an extremely and it goes across cables. All i remember it was that somehow i was able to set my foot in one spot and another and another spot through two words they looked on me. Fresh out of juicy fruit. They head for people who they met in this way. Her eyes beamed out as if there was light from within. Her smile was broad and she was full of a and expecting it. I think that was the main thing. I dont really remember what else she said. It was a sense i was very cold dash met close to goodness. This happened to me one or two other times in my life one very movingly with Nelson Mandela came up broadway soon after his release. In his arrival into the United States. By chance i have my sup downtown. As i walked towards broadway realizing something was happening just as i arrived at broadway there he was in a bubble car. In the parade. And his glance fell to the left of me. There was the same phenomenon. I sought thought once in an artery just when he was looking at something. And when it was given as pure tension connected me back to mrs. Roosevelt and begin this book to me. I only realized around 2001 i was given the access to a basement on madison avenue and to go down into that basement with a young cartoonist from minnesota had been trying for a number of years to get his cartoon started. It was the International Syndicate that scholz was accepted by. And as i found it at the s part of the banker box. They are alphabetical. And the first one i sought to my left was a roosevelt my day. I just picked up the lid and the magical dust flew into the air as we lifted out a long galley. And the first description. I have an impression that Eleanor Roosevelt had written a column. I did not know anything about it at that moment. As i began reading a description of starlight. In the fall morning and the great hopefulness that the site of morningstar from mrs. Roosevelt sleeping porch brought into this daily column i felt the same sense of wonder and joy and love why dont i keep reading this. I have a lot to do of course i have a very strong feeling that this was something that needed to be continued. I needed to look more carefully there. Strangely, on the same spot it turns out i later learned. With franklins mother. The basement where i was. Have been there house in new york city. With the commercial things began to arrive. It began further up town. That was her moment of escape. Up to 4749. Back to cambridge briefly. Before i turned it over. I wanted to give a shout out to everybody at corner scare books. I want to give a shout out to one of your neighbors. Eleanor parker. She and i just used to run for that train there. It was always a bit kind of odd jumping out. And it certified our audit bonus. That we were taking the cheney train. It was very vivid. That was very far away. As i sort of knew it early on. In my teenage years. It was very romantic and highly literary im so proud to be at this tonight. That was fascinating. And i loved your connection to boston. Youre very much a new york person now. Cambridge dies hard in all of us. It was fascinating to hear. In the series that we do. We do have a lot of partners. One of my favorites is border square books. As many of you know. We at the ancestors run the series american inspiration. I cant think of a better person to be a part of the series than Eleanor Roosevelt. They are large figures in American History. Particularly in this time. For our great country. She is such a role model. And truly inspiring. And beth, tell us a little bit about your fandom. When i start off with the first question. Let me just apologize for being a little late to join you. My computer shut down. Im ahead of the special collection. With the massachusetts state house. We are the positive rate of massachusetts. Margaret and i had written some questions for david we have also compiled questions that came from people when they registered. Im in a start with one question that is mostly mine. It also includes questions that came in from other people. Here is my first question. My favorite line in the whole book and there was many favorite lines. Was right after the dedication page but before the table of contents. It is a quote from eleanor i felt obliged to notice everything. Everything that shaped her life. I wonder if you could give us some context for that quote and tell us if you agree with my thoughts about it. That is exactly as an epigraph i hoped what it would sound. As an overture to her life. I used to listen to erin copeland. When i began work. I thought of the great expansion from her own personal life to the life of the country. Her ability to notice began when she was very young and it was something of a survival mechanism. I was shocked how many people left records almost daring sometimes. When she didnt think someone was noticing her. She would look very carefully at them. In one of democracies great principles. The that everybodys life and feelings they are to be equally judged and taken into account. I think they were noticing that it was extremely democratic and equal opportunity. One of the things everybody that did meet her or did came into contact with her. They felt seen. I think being seen by someone who comes from the center of the government or democracy was a very unusual experience in those days. I think it be even more unusual now to feel that seen in our mass world. I think to be glimpsed. Was to feel as if you are have very humanity. That was automatic and natural to her. You couldnt fake it. It was authentic. It was an authentic wish to understand others. I think she felt like there was no one she couldnt learn from. And they began to get a sense about what they were about. Sometime some time back to some agency that would help. She use to reflect those thoughts and the things that she have seen in others i have an entire filed file called noticing. Where she changed what being first lady was. Her job was to notice people. Thank you for that. Also part of that sentence is the word obliged. I was very struck by how obligated they felt to so many people through her life. Starting with her father you say she developed a fundamental capacity to oblige. Into live subject to other peoples control. She looked after the girls that were there. She looked after her young brother paul. And then she looked after fpr. She very hard to please mother in law. There was a lot of stepping back and in obliging that they did. Was she just born for this type of service. As perhaps the greatest dogooder of all time. I was beginning research and beginning to understand her. They have died in such a disgrace. As it drunk and a junkie. In his final years. And then afterwards by people in his own world. And in people she then came across. I think her wish to do good became something that translated in and needed to be useful if she could be useful she thought she could be loved. It became an admission for her to be the kind of person whose usefulness was enlightening or would open some the app. It became her transaction. In the way she connected. We have a number of questions about why she went to certain things. Was she an introspective story. In this service. That youre talking about. What the capacity to for behar. I think her willingness to be tolerant became something that she first worked on. The parts of herself that she knew she could not had and others. It was a battle and a struggle that i think she conquered. One of her feelings that she understood and herself. She was absolutely shut down. Even a mild peak. The right to be flow full blown angry. Quite cried out all by herself. She is very constrained. And i think learning how to respond to people to people who had hurt her. And to turn on herself. I think it is the transcendence of that. That allow her to become the independent woman she later became one of the reasons she have learned early how to befriend somebody who in the case of not so much lucy mercer. And replaced her almost. As a surrogate. She learned to love and tolerate. Part of their parallel lives. Many of the people who attend the author talks many with very similar names. Thank you for that of the list of characters in the beginning of the book. That was very helpful. Especially the nickname. Could you tell us how you manage the research. Im asking this partly as a librarian too. There is a couple of tricks. The trick was that i learned. I give each person a color so that franklin was always blue. Every green index card was eleanor. Any woman that eleanor fell and it is a love interest. And white is quotations from other sources that needs to be saved. Those are useful and helpful in terms of keeping things straight at the beginning. You can expand the colors. The purples were people who were franklin and eleanor people. All and quietly inquiry a logical order. Every single thing. Pre internet. He thought globally. In much of his work was global. The only way to keep things straight was to file everything chronologically. I realize every time you get a piece of information if you do put it chronologically into a chronological file. Of where it came into your own life. You actually remember it better. It also went into a chronological file of eleanor. I would always put things into the life where they would happen. When you go back to that year you discover the two things you put next to each other. Suddenly reveal something. Its quite often the case. They are surprised bumping up each other. The first answer to the question is index cards. I have to have it in my hand in the beginning. It does go into the great digital suit. I have a space in mount auburn because of my mother. I will end up in a digital Rolling Stones concert. It sounds like fun. I was fortunate in my early publishing career to work for alfred a knopf junior. He would do the same thing. He tested the chronology of everything. And as his administrative person. And then have years and years of photos. All of these letters he ever wrote. Please give me 1990. And every person gets a file two. Each of them separate. Also to keep the gilded age families. In order. The roosevelt you talk about. With the oyster bay. They come from the the families up in the Hudson Valley worm remarkable land of and that in a hall just they hung out and tivoli new york. In many ways i think of Eleanor Roosevelt your book. As a portrait of new york. She is a new york girl. And she moves among new york. And then the vanderbilt. They might divorce and so much. Fdr went and got a library. The beams and histories a come come back into their lives and hunt them. Theyre very much the ones in charge at that point. That older version of great wealth much struck me about new york. Thank you ellie parker again. And as each new wave of immigrants arrived. And they came into the city. It was going to finally transcend. Very committed to re shaping and saving. So many of them that were reforms. And the reforms of the new deal. They helped save people who were sick in that city. The guys from tammy hall came over. So that you would do their bidding politically. They brought you ice. They came to represent the government. In the american the prosperity. That was created with all of that wealth and overtook families like eleanors. And she accidentally. And when you see her. It was strange and sad. In the great roosevelt monument. Next to the title basement there. And they were shown in that statue. She wore furs everywhere. She arrived with violet. She always have something with you. She never gave those up. Or labeled accordingly. She simply was who she was. And that kind of freedom i think is a tramp for her ultimately. And allowed her to be herself in ways i think other people were uncomfortable with. That is a wonderful answer. The question i have actually is the other peoples as well. In the section that covers the first years after fdrs election to the presidency i was struck by how similar. Many of the conditions that were going through right now there was other work. President ial election. Climate disasters many more things. They are very similar to what were going through right now. The question is how can we do to help us through these times. She certainly made listening part of the Job Description i think her listening and how it might affect the other people in their lives. She was a dr. She listened with her back leaning forward. To understand what kind of illnesses you might have inherited when they were diagnosed. She was wide open to what you have to say. Without question. The ability to listen is the most important thing today. The other part is hatred is upon us and has been upon us for a while. It took me by surprise and shocked me to find the kind of hatred that she was subjected to in her public life starting in her public life as a woman. She was reviled. Because they realize especially in the south where jim crow was in the dependency. She experienced the kind of hatred that you heard a bit about. And hurt during the obama years. It was now out in the street. Her ability to let that go and never react directly to find a way around or over. Sometimes through. I think she was never committed to winning. To making her point be the point that stuck. She was always moving past that. I think the movement itself and letting go it was a two things that she did you dont see much of or enough of now. We are going to turn to some questions that came in from our viewers i gathered three of them together. I will add to that myself. What was her Early Education and who influenced her the most i would love for you to talk a little bit about her remarkable experience of education david also. And also fdrs approach to education. He was clearly haunted by his dr. And in a good way. Both of them greatly formed by their education. Tell us more. She was told by her grandmother that if she were to go to college she would never attract a man. And to simply a few more finetunings of a debutante if at all. But women didnt really go to college in her class. Very few did. You see law school. They were ultimately from her generation. But not the women that she came to age with. She went to boarding school in england that her roosevelt aunt the sister of theodore roosevelt. Have gone and become the it girl of that era. She was a charismatic french woman who was progressive in her politics who emphasized one thing above all others. That woman needed to learn to think for herself. The idea of education at the time. Was thought to actually be harmful to Womens Health want young woman might get ideas. You might need to send her away to someplace if you got too carried away with this education stuff. It was almost radical in the sense that they were taking the young women of the time they were not being told at home to think for themselves not only must they think for themselves. And to carry the argument through and to defend their part of the argument skills that today i think are not natural to a sixth grader. They stayed with the madam. His favorite she became. It was more a sense of position. Sort of a graduate student. It was almost assistant professor role. Where she have things to teach younger girls. She had responsibilities. She was what she became all her life. Going between the authority and others. And then she defended her to her classmates. She took education as a gift what she learned there she brought back. Become a template for her for her whole life. She blamed herself for later. The standards she have to learn at the table of the school how to converse with a grown up on subjects that she knew nothing about. That was a matter of listening to what was said. Coming back with that later in the conversation as if she now knew better or more than she did. Its not exactly bse as we call it today. But it was a way of projecting things that she learned later to curtail. She then went back to the books later on. And said im cannot get out learn from the ground up. And not just take this more diplomatic version she went back to the United States in 1901 and was subjected by her grandmother to to the whole range of debutante coming out and society girl. And rituals and rites it was horrific to her. In large part because her own parents. She was an orphan by then. Her mother have been in the ascendancy in new york society. She have lost her father in this scandalous way. Every room she was in. The less attractive daughter. It was a public shaming and also the rituals of that were really all geared towards the matrons and were you going to play the game of hatch and spent. And being involved in all of the dangerous liaisons in the age of innocence kind of tribal rituals and rites. Rates. She was such an outsider and her own life had now created the great theme of do i belong and do i can in my connected. She discovered another outsider and oddball. Because although franklin came from the Roosevelt Roosevelt of hyde park and hudson river they have quite a magnificent childhood there. It was isolated childhood. His mother sent him to school late. He lost three years that his peers have already had bonding at that very male school. In the world that he have to catch up and he was considered an outsider. When they met. It was the meeting of the oddballs. There were cousins but they were both odd. And it could be quite dynamic in magnetic. In the world at that time. It was part of the earliest attractions. I think when i was reading in the book. And needs the cast of characters. In this a story about this. It was magnificent and now falling down as industrialism in the new world overtakes it but she lives in this house as an orphan and looks as if it is right out of the magnificent emersons. Have in these on arc uncles who were falling down. When long tennis was just starting. They were the earliest champions. In the aunts with a dazzling utes of the moments. And the uncle was an amateur actor. When uncle valley and uncle vallee and uncle eddie won the doubles championship in the east coast of 1880 they then moved on to the National Championship several years later. It was full of their trophies. It was full of all of this old but passing glory. And eleanor was the young responsible one among a group of now alcoholic outofcontrol quite kooky zany and fun. It was not a gothic or horrified orphan hunt it was more that she saw people falling apart. She learned how to be the proxy trustee she was the one that showed up in court. They have gone on a bender in new york. In the tenderloin district and showed up as the stationhouse he was calling them and saint someone has to come and get him out of here. He was the bane of eleanors life when she was first lady. And uncle eddie had his life. She was very loyal to those ends and uncles they did so much better than uncles. It was the beginning of her taking the displaced people. They didnt know where to go or what to do ultimately. I was eleanors job to take care of them and she buried each of them. She saw them through terrible tragedies. She took care of their children. In paid tuitions. In the numbers of people and things. That should be writing checks for and her adult life and the christmas list the numbers of individuals that she was constantly a sense of responsibility to her was extraordinary. I was just personal let alone all of the people that applied it to to in the political world. We are getting a little bit close to the end to you and ask the main question and then will do the final one. There are 70 questions you go ahead with one more. We had people online who were named eleanor after Eleanor Roosevelt. Did you run across that. The comments on naming for eleanor. Keep talking as i have to look for this really quickly. Just one sack. I keep almanacs uncertain things. I began keeping an almanac of the things that were named for her after her. And here it is. Amber tipped calla lily. A clock and a cake. A strawberry. They are plain to segregated audience in the south. That was in aiken south carolina. Spaghetti strapped wedding gown. A milwaukee restaurant. In the vocational school. An honorary chapter of cap the delta pi. For the distinguished educators. At rhode island state college. Countless newborns including the baby born in a trailer. North wilmington massachusetts. Eleanor louise. Elinor bergstein. The writer of the movie dirty dancing. Award and fellowship. At 200acre tract of land. A homesteading town in pennsylvania. The first and last name. The sun downtown. Unlike in Yosemite National park. Buildings in u. S. Embassies. Including tshaped bunkers. Especially the 368 par course. In the fourth hole at the ryman new york. They were called eleanors teeth. A white dahlia. And a clock. It is always on the go. That is my naming almanac. When it we do the last question which again as many of them had been as a combination of questions that came in from people. Was eleanor appreciated by the public during her lifetime or was the impact only realized after her death. In the second half of that question as is her legacy still relevant in todays world. I think there is so much pain in the world right now that eleanor is a figure now greater than ever because she was a person who saw pain and others and try to heal it. And could. She have the ability to do that. Her ability to look into you that connection which sadly we are not able to do that in real time anymore. It is still there for people when they do connect to her. As global. It is universal. Its about finding and seeing the humanity and somebody else and then taking it into yourself. When she was alive two things happened. As a strangeness that she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize several times but never given it. As the creator and the chairman of the supervisor of the universal declaration of human rights. A document that attempts to bring basic rights to people in all nations across the globe and serve as an instrument for those rights Going Forward she should have been awarded at that honor for her life was so full of honor i dont think it matters to her at all that that never took place. I think she wouldve been the first to say that it was for her husbands policies were carried out. In her lifetime, she felt beloved i think by people. I think she committed to the love and adoration. I think they stopped her frequently on the street and where she was and she connected frequently with people she always gave it over to franklin her husband. And as the great war leader. Who did not see the end of the war. Gave her an endless decades of widowhood in which she could sidestep what attention might be brought to her. She was simply carrying out her husbands legacy. She would deflect when she needed to deflect i think. I think what she wanted always was connection and belonging. And what she wanted was love. I think she found that in part and yet never holy. I think her struggles in her ability to finally see herself whole i think it manifested at the very end of her life. I think she accepted that what she have done was enough in her final struggles with tuberculosis. She was just able to say its not who i am. And fadeaway. I would rather go now and i think she and recognizing that she have done what she had been put on earth to do. I think she expressed the kind of. My favorite monument and it is full of great monuments. Arthur grade so now appears in his bowtie engraved on the stone. There are two stones in mount auburn. Husband and wife. The best beloved. Her stone said she tried. I think eleanor i think she tried. I think she succeeded. I think she did finally love and i think she was loved. Finding that from herself primarily was a great struggle. I do think that today when you just riffle through the Digital World of Eleanor Roosevelt quotes and of the inspiration she brings to people even by saying no one can make you inferior without your consent. The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. The quotes and ideas. Are active for people. I think theyre brought forward by times in the ones were living in. At the ready as confused as to its role. As to how to help and bring people into the process that they are alienated from. The main goal i think was to say that your government doesnt belong to you. That you do have a role to play. Its not just giving to you. And its something that you need to step up please and vote. I had loved Eleanor Roosevelt my entire life. After reading my book i had loved her even more. I think corner square books is going to come back on. Select. I come back on. I want to extend my thanks to all three of you to beth and margaret for coming up with those Great Questions and for the ones that we didnt get to talk about. All of us could have been happy talking about them for a very long time. For giving us a tremendous work of scholarship. I think any of us who are around our age. Or even older than us or younger than us. She remains the quintessential first lady when you think of what a president s spouse should be like. The one you measure up against is Eleanor Roosevelt. It made it clear why she got to that place and i appreciate your insights into what her history might be able to tell us for the times that we are in now. Going on a hundred years after the beginning of her husbands presidency. I will remind everyone again. If you click on the bottom you will get the book that is signed by david. Thank you everyone again. Im sorry that some people have the problems with the platform. This is wonderful. And thank you for joining us. Here is a look at some of the books being published this week. And let a stream. Pope francis offers his thoughts on how we could build a better world. Georgetown University Professor examines incidents of racial violence throughout American History and argues the country must confront systemic racism in a long time coming. And in all the young men. They recall their time as a caregiver. Michael walsh examines historic battles where small armies refused to surrender and last stand. And in mediocre. They argue that to the detriment of Society White men had been raised to believe that they are superior. Find these titles this coming week wherever books are sold and watch for many of the authors in the near future on book tv on cspan two. Book Tv Television for serious readers all weekend every weekend join us again next saturday beginning at 8 00 a. M. Eastern for the best and nonfiction books. Guest netflix is the worlds leading entertainment service. We produce and distribute amazing tevision series and movies. Weve been around about 20 ars and have about 200 milon familiesround the world who are our members. Host i there a connection to the 1998 company where you at 900 movie titles and 30 employees . Guest theres a little connection to that. We started 22 years ago mailing