Down and Out in the Great Depression: Letters from the Forgotten Man

[Captain Hilts]

Actually, a LOT of them are written by women because women were more comfortable pleading for help. The news reports that Prez. Obama will read ten letters a day should spark interest books like this. I think this one is the best.

The vast majority of these letters are to the Roosevelts - Eleanor got more letters in her first year in the White House than Herbert Hoover got in four years. Washington - and the White House - have often been occupied by caring people, but this book shows how the Roosevelts were able to project that care better than others.

The letters include pleas for help, efforts and recommendations to 'cure' FDR's paralysis, requests for used clothes, etc.

There are a few letters to Hoover and Sen. Robert Wagner of NY.

There are several collections of letters to the Roosevelts that have been published. Some just by kids, others just from women, etc. This book is well-organized and gives a flavor to the needs of desperate people.

From the Amazon reviews:

"These are messages written by people who have had their world turned inside out by forces they could not understand. Their despair, fear and uncertainty are evident in their statements, which are letters to government officials such as President Franklin Roosevelt. Many are also addressed to Eleanor Roosevelt, a tribute to her image as someone who cared. It is moving to read the simple letters, most of which are filled with spelling and grammatical errors. These are common people who are seeking help, yet in most cases, what they ask for is so little."

And:

"Correspondances range from angry letters denouncing the responses of President Hoover in dealing with the Depession, to cheerful letters praising President Roosevelt as a saintly figure, to poignant letters written to Eleanor Roosevelt begging for money and old clothes, to disturbing letters that sound eerily like suicide notes of people who have lost all hope..."

[ellie]

1. Sounds interesting!

Thanks for posting this.

[Captain Hilts]

2. It's a great way to spend an afternoon. It really is.

They recreate the bad grammar and mis-spellings.

Now, one of the frustrating things about the availability of letters for compilations such as this one is that, often - such as in letters to FDR or ER - they would be passed on to the appropriate agencies where they might or might not have been kept on file after they were dealt with, if they were acted on at all.

But of the various books I've read, this one is still the best. "Dear Mrs. Roosevelt," a compilation of kids' letters to her is also interesting and notes that it's really hard to tell to what degree the Rs were able to help these individual pleas. That Eleanor, in particular, used them when talking to govt. officials is well known.