Really enjoyed Persico's "Franklin and Lucy: Mrs. Rutherfurd and the Other Remarkable Women in Roosevelt's Life." The depiction of FDR as a "sun king," reliant on the encouragement of particular, compelling women to maintain his glow, as it were, was nuanced, and at times made FDR's charm a little chilling. To extend the metaphor: once out of the sun, it was very, very cold (think of his marriage, the aftermath of Missy's stroke).
If by "great" we can also swing toward the more "notorious" end of the spectrum, I'd have to throw J. Edgar's hat into the ring. Hoover's influence on the EOPOTUS lasted over 40 years, through the presidencies of Herbert Hoover, FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, JFK, LBJ, and Nixon. Not to mention his influence over other non-presidential greats, like MLK, ER, and RFK.
Hi there!
I’m Susie, an audiovisual archivist recently graduated from library school, preparing for my first job at the Library of Congress. I spent a year working in audiovisual archives at the JFK Presidential Library and Museum and became fascinated with the NARA Presidential Library system, my goal being to visit each and every one! I’ve devoured a lot of literature, as well as primary source material, on the Kennedys, obviously, but I am a big FDR/ER buff. I stumbled across Mike’s Twitter one day and all of his fabulous tweets on presidential biographies, and the rest, as they say, is history! Happy to be here and looking forward to getting better acquainted with y’all!



Presidential HistoryBest presidential bios?Jun 22, 2016 at 6:34 PM