Travels with Eleanor #8 - Women mentors and friends by Nan Brooks
Elizabeth Read and Esther Lape
Life partners, activists, and Eleanor's mentors
I have long been fascinated by the fact that some people are bitter and resentful of the hardships in their lives—loss, betrayal, abuse, neglect. And others endure the same kinds of experiences to become generous, grateful, even gracious. My father was such a person and so was Eleanor Roosevelt. What made the difference for them? What helps someone survive and then thrive in generosity of spirit?
As I learned about Eleanor’s life, I could see the turning
points, of course,
and where one or two people made such a difference to her. School with Mademoiselle Souvestre was one (see Travels with
Eleanor #7 from last week). When she came home from England and her two years
of formal education, Eleanor made her society debut and found ways to be of
service in New York. Her society debut was a miserable experience, but the
women she met in the social justice movements became her closest friends and her
mentors, all in one. Marie Souvestre’s teaching and probably their continuing
correspondence provided Eleanor with the way to blossom: service to causes beyond
her own class and race.
When she joined the new League of Women Voters in 1920, Eleanor
met Elizabeth Read, an attorney and financial advisor to influential clients. Her
life partner, Esther Lape, was one of the founders of the League of Women
Voters. The League had been formed about six months before passage of the
Nineteenth Amendment and was considered a grand experiment designed to educate
women voters. Esther was an English professor, journalist, and publicist. She
and Elizabeth had led campaigns for women’s suffrage and other movements for
social change and justice.
Eleanor called Esther and Elizabeth, among others, her mentors;
she said they were responsible for her education. Self-conscious about her lack
of formal schooling, Eleanor wrote fondly of the evenings she spent with Esther
and Elizabeth at the Greenwich Village apartment, reading poetry and listening
to music. The conversations must have been lively as well.
Eleanor eventually rented an apartment in the same building,
which became her sanctuary during FDR’s presidency. When I visited the FDR
presidential library at Hyde Park, I found a replica of Eleanor’s New York
apartment and was astounded to see that the stage set for the original production
of Dear Mrs. Roosevelt looked very much like it right down to the items
on her desk – the small US flag in a stand, the photographs, the mementos of
her travels. I still have chills at the thought. (My dentist once theorized
that I was Eleanor reincarnated. When she (the dentist, that is), finished her
work and I could talk, I pointed out that I was 20 when ER died. But sometimes
the connection with her spirit, or whatever it is, is startling to me still.
Especially the reports that people could see her standing behind me during
performances. But I digress. Again.
Esther Lape and Eleanor in the 1950s
Eleanor and Elizabeth worked on many committees, including one to encourage US participation in the World Bank. Eleanor became director of the League of Women Voters national legislation committee and they worked together there. With Esther, Eleanor was asked to administer the American Peace Award, which would give $100,000 ($1,520,556 in today’s money) to the person who submitted the best practical plan for the US to cooperate with other nations to achieve and preserve world peace. Edward W. Bok, an author and editor of the Ladies Home Journal, had created the idea and funded the prize. However, the federal government under President Woodrow Wilson investigated a claim that the prize was “a tool of foreign government and institutes”. Eleanor and Esther were tried in court, but the charges were dropped when Wilson died.
The three women often
discussed and corresponded about the relationship between the US and the Soviet
Union. Elizabeth had written a book on international law in 1925. They worked
on policies to include medical care in the Social Security Act. I wonder what
they would think about the proposition of Medicare for All, not to mention the
involvement of Russia in US electoral politics.
Elizabeth died in 1943, while Eleanor was First Lady. I have no doubt that Esther was an important sounding board
for Eleanor in her time as the US delegate to the United Nations. In any case,
her influence on Eleanor was profound
and one can see evidence of her influence in the U.N. Declaration of Human
Rights. Esther and Elizabeth were, indeed, among ER’s finest teachers.
Three years after Eleanor’s death, Esther addressed the
Novel Committee to propose that ER be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
posthumously. The committee declined
because the award was not given posthumously.
Esther
and Eleanor would remain friends until ER’s death over 40 years later in 1962.
Along with learning, still, about the women in Eleanor’s
life and their far-reaching work, I like thinking about how Eleanor found a
peaceful hideaway in Greenwich Village during and after the White House years.
No one in the Village at that time would likely have wondered about the women
who came to visit – women in men’s clothing like Lorena Hickok, for instance.
Next week: Hick, the one everyone asks about
For information on archives, correspondence, photographs and
much more on Eleanor Roosevelt and her circle, go to www.fdrlibrary.org
For “Important Political Women in Eleanor’s Life” go to
For Information on the Women’s Trade Union League
Women’s Trade Union League
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