Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd

What more could there be to know about FDR, given how exhaustively his life has been written about? As it happens, there is more and that focuses on Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd, the queen of her Washington social circle, later FDRs friend and love-and Eleanors rival, as the title of Christine Tottens work points out. In Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd: Eleanors Rival, FDRs Other Love, Totten presents a carefully structured case for a deep and lasting but chaste love between Lucy and FDR, against the prevailing view that they were clandestine lovers. Tottens research into the personal memories of the Rutherfurd family and the public holdings of the FDR Library establishes a new rich understanding of Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd--her early life, her education, and her role in the social and political scene in Washington. This work gives Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd her due, as a woman in her own right as well as FDRs valued soul mate and friend.