Cohen, Robert, ed. Dear Mrs. Roosevelt; letters from children of the Great Depression

Kliatt, March, 2003 by Edna M. Boardman

Univ. of North Carolina Press. 266p. illus. notes. index. c2002. 0-8078-5413-1. $16.95.

A world of deep need comes into focus through a sampling of letters written by young people to Eleanor Roosevelt during the 1930s, the years when the Great Depression caused great economic and social distress. Ninety percent of the letters requesting aid of the president and his wife during this time were written by adults, but Cohen's search through archives reveals that children and teens, girls more often than boys, also wrote. Mrs. Roosevelt composed columns for the newspapers of the time and made radio broadcasts in which she spoke of great concern for the poverty-stricken state of the population, especially the youth, and invited listeners to write to her. President Roosevelt, in a memorable speech, said that one third of the nation was "ill clothed, ill housed, and ill fed," and here is very human evidence that he was correct.

Cohen introduces the letters at length, and examples of the letters are clustered in chapters, which also begin with interpretive material. The letters almost always start with a note of apology for writing, and then reveal a heartrending desperation. The great majority of the writers requested clothing and imagined that Mrs. Roosevelt could dip into an extensive wardrobe of her personal discards or into a trove of used clothing it was rumored was stored in the White House attic. They believed that she could send them a package by return mail. It appears that the lack of proper clothing meant not only that the young people could not protect their bodies from the elements, but that it degraded them socially and prevented them from participating in important events surrounding high school graduation.

Many asked for money and often offered to pay it back with interest. They wanted it for daily needs (requests for food are surprisingly largely absent, and doctors reported little evidence of starvation), for gifts and bicycles, for medical and dental care for themselves and their families, and for books, tuition and typewriters. Government agencies developed income scales with which they estimated the lifestyle achievable at varying levels, and many of the correspondents clearly fell well below the minimum at which a family could sustain life with dignity. A final brief chapter comments on the response of Mrs. Roosevelt and her staff to the letters. A very few were answered fulfilling the request; most received rather cool form letters telling the writer that, because of the many similar letters Mrs. Roosevelt received, she could not send the desired aid. The editor feels the staff could have done a better job of personalizing the replies.

The editor's essays are scholarly and will be challenging reading for most high school students, but they will appreciate the letters for how, through them, their counterparts of the 1930s become real persons. Teachers who treat the period will be delighted to find this fresh material on the library shelf. Edna M. Boardman, Bismark, ND