Eleanor Roosevelt, An Eager Spirit; The Letters of Dorothy Dow 1933-1945

New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1984. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Good. 252 pages. DJ has some wear, tears, and soiling. Frontis illustration. List of Illustrations. Footnotes. Illustrations. Appendix: Identifications of Persons Mentioned in the Letters. Signed and dated by Dorothy Dow on fep. Dorothy Dow Butturff was born on March 1, 1904 in La Crosse, Wis. Mrs. Butturff began her government career in 1930 with her appointment as a secretary in the Dept. of the Interior. She was transferred to the White House Social Bureau following President Franklin D. Roosevelt's first inauguration in 1933 and remained until 1957. From 1933 to 1945, she was assistant to Eleanor Roosevelt's personal secretary, Malvina Thompson Scheider, dividing her time between the White House and the Roosevelt home at Hyde Park, N.Y. During her White House years of "life on a merry-go-round in an elevator with the Roosevelts," Mrs. Butturff wrote many fascinating letters to her family detailing her varied experiences as a White House staff member. In 1984, these letters were edited by Ruth K. McClure and published as Eleanor Roosevelt, an eager spirit: the letters of Dorothy Dow, 1933-1945. In 1946 she transferred to the correspondence section of the Executive Office of the President, moving soon thereafter to the Office of Presidential Appointments, where she remained until her retirement in 1957. Dorothy Dow married Robert R. Butturff on Oct. 20, 1934. Ruth McClure was an established author and editor, associated with Yale University. The compiled letters of Dorothy Dow, one of Mrs. Roosevelt's most trusted secretaries, create a candid and engaging account of Eleanor Roosevelt and her inner circle of family, friends, and staff. Published in the year of the centennial celebration of Eleanor Roosevelt's birth, these letter from one of Mrs. Roosevelt's most trusted secretaries, Dorothy Dow, offer a particularly timely evocation of the beloved first lady. From her post and during summers in Hyde Park, Dorothy Dow observed Mrs. Roosevelt with keen interest and growing admiration. Ms. Dow's letters home were candid and engaging accounts of life lived close to Mrs. Roosevelt and her inner circle of family, friends, and staff. Along with vivid sketches of Mrs. R. at home, these letter breathe the spirit of the thirties and forties. They convey not only how people lived but how they thought and what they believed.