F.D.R.: His: Personal Letters Vol. 1

This first of three volumes contains the boyhood letters, from the first, written at the age of five, to the time of his graduation from Harvard and his marriage to his cousin, Eleanor Roosevelt. The letters- recording his years at Groton and Harvard, had been kept by his mother, almost intact, and are presented verbatim, even to errors and repetition. This editorial judgment will open the question of relative value as source material for future scholars versus readability today. Connecting editorial comments place references, allusions, persons mentioned, and fill in some backgrounds of training, his home, his contacts with people, his growth of knowledge and development personality. But in the main the letters speak for themselves, of a boy accustomed to measure of wealth, an acceptance of social position- so that they were unimportant; of reasonably good student, who was never too sure of his standing; of normal boy interest in games, schoolmates, fun- along with a serious concern in taking some responsibility for his fellows. There's no particular sense of that rare gift of phrase and express that we associate with his maturity- though somehow, through these fragmentary glimp of his life and deals come through. Passing mention of world events,- the ing of the Maine, the Spanish-American War (from which an ignominious attack of scarl fever interrupted his plan to run away and enlist), the Boer War, the election of his cousin, Theore Roosevelt, the annexation of Hawaii, the Philippine question -- these more take their place. A book which will sell to those who are building a Roosevelt rary. But frankly a minor item for that shelf though a rather unique reflection of are in which he grew up, the class which he represented, the influences