The writer Alfred Steinberg is well known for his biographies of Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson, Eleanor Roosevelt and Sam Rayburn. He also wrote more than 200 magazine articles, as well as book reviews and features for the Washington Post, the New York Times, Reader's Digest, the Saturday Evening Post, Harper's, Collier's, and American Heritage.
Mr. Steinberg's books included "Mrs. R," this biography of Eleanor Roosevelt, whom he had known when she was United States Representative to the United Nations; "The Man From Missouri," a biography of Truman, and "Sam Johnson's Boy," about Lyndon Johnson.
This was the first full-length biography of Eleanor Roosevelt, based upon her personal papers, when published in 1958. Previously known only through her own three-volume autobiography, Mrs. Roosevelt had remained something of a mystery and a legend, beloved by millions and disliked by some.
Over 4,000 of her personal letters and other private papers at the Hyde Park memorial library were studied by the author. He has woven all known sources of information into an extremely lively story, with the warmth and mastery of a fine novelist.
Here is the lonely childhood, disrupted by the death of loved ones, the shy emergence into wealthy society, the court-ship by Franklin under the possessive authority of his mother, the day-to-day events of Campobello and polio, the young wife's reluctant participation in politics as the "eyes, ears and legs" of the man of destiny.
The reader will also see how the programs of the New Deal developed during the Depression, and how the Roosevelts worked together to repeal the Neutrality Acts in order to aid Great Britain at the start of World War II.
Eleanor Roosevelt became one of the world's great travelers in her search for pertinent information concerning the state of all nations. Always the champion of the underdog, she gradually evolved into a figure alone and apart. Neither her husband's death nor her own advancing age cut down the influence of this notable woman upon notable events.
