Lorena Hickok, special investigator for Harry Hopkins, traveled the country reporting on the human dimension of life during the Depression, while at the same time evaluating the impact of New Deal policies and programs and support for Roosevelt. Her reports read like letters, honest and open, down to earth. She talked to governors, tenant farmers, labor leaders, children working in the fields, social workers, down and out transients, former press colleagues, people on the edge of survival - and everyone in between. Hickok struggles with issues of white collar workers on relief vs the working class and chronically poor. Her ignorance on race issues is apparent when visiting the South and Southwest, but reading these reports is also instructive on attitudes of the times. I picked up this book because I was interested in the life of Lorena Hickok, who was the AP's highest paid female reporter before taking the job with Hopkins, and intimate friend of Eleanor Roosevelt. What I got was a window into her world, but much more than that. Highly recommended for those interested in the US in the 1930s, the Depression years, and for fans of Hick.

The Story of Helen Keller
By Lorena A. Hickok

Have you every thought about how it felt to be deaf and blind at the same time? This a true story about Helen Keller. She was deaf and blind. She lived in Tuscumbia, Alabama. She was born with a sickness that made her blind and deaf. She was alone in the dark until her teacher Annie Sullivan came along. Annie taught Helen Braille. Helen was no longer in the dark. Helen was able to communicate with other people.

I like this book because it teaches me about the blind and deaf. Also, it is a happy and sad biography.

I think the author was trying to get through to us that Helen Keller had to use patience, effort, and confidence. We should use those lifeskills in our lives too.

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This has been the best book I have ever read it made me cry and laugh as little Helen finds who she realy is. But she lost her sight and her hearing as to menagitis. She was lost in the widerness she was locked up until Anne came and she taught Helen how to do many things. She was a little girl who found the key to her happyness and her life. I recommend this book to ages 8-12 so go and buy this book and see what happend to Helen.

This was a great story for kids of Helen Keller's life. I easily understood the story line and it could be eaisly understood by at least a third grader. It starts with the tragic tale about a girl in darkness and goes to her elderly days when her dream was that no blind man will wake around with a tin cup begging.It describes how her sense of smell saved her mother,her sister and brother-in-law by smelling the fire that started under her bed.It tells how she was the oping act for plays to pay for her teacher's eye operation.(teacher meaning Annie Sullevin)It goes into great deatale about her life. That is why I would rate this book five stars.

Eleanor Roosevelt has been an inspiration ever since I was a young girl, a terrific role model for political activists, humanitarians, and women and girls of all ages. But she is often portrayed in biographies (excepting Blanche Wiesen Cook's wonderful recent work) as a cold fish in her personal life. This is one of the reasons that any fan of ER should read these letters. ER is passionate, caring, needy, annoyed - real emotions from a real woman. We also get a look at Lorena Hickok - Hick - beyond the stereotypes, as a woman deeply in love and troubled by the lack of an exclusive relationship.

One problem I have with the book, though, is not letting whole letters speak for themselves, revealing more of the political discussions that seem to have been a big part of both women's lives and their attraction to one another. Were they lovers? They were certainly "in love," and regardless of where they drew the physical line, this book reveals foremothers any woman, lesbians included, should be proud to claim.

Without citing the necessity to comment affirmatively or negatively to Mrs. Roosevelt's sexual preferences, I applaud her passion, her candor, and her immense capability to love; in spite of all the foul balls thrown her way by those closest to her. I believe that through all of the personal drama she was obliged to endure, she still saw the cup as half full. Mr. Rodger Streitmatter upholds the dignity of the First Lady.

I must say, however, Ms. Hickok left me a little cold. I do not think their relationship could endure in this day and age, even as we seemingly embrace a more open view of bi and homosexuality. Lorena, on her emotional rollercoaster, would have been a considerable liability for anyone of Eleanor's public stature.

If only we all could find one good friend as they found each other. I enjoyed the book very much. Well, written and organized to chronicle Mrs. Roosevelt's life behind the scenes