Lorena Hickok was born on March 7, 1893, in East Troy, Wisconsin. Throughout her childhood, she traveled with her family through the upper midwest as her father followed his itinerant buttermaking trade. Her mother died when Miss Hickok was thirteen. Three years afterward she went to Battle Creek, Michigan, to live with her mother's cousin, Ella Ellie. There she attended High School, finishing in three years. After a brief attempt at college, Miss Hickok took her first job with a newspaper, collecting personals for the Battle Creek EVENING NEWS. After a second and a third attempt at college, she decided to pursue a career in journalism. In the summer of 1919 she was appointed Sunday editor of the Minneapolis TRIBUNE. The paper's managing editor, Thomas J. Dillon, gave her opportunities that were seldom given to a woman. He gave her a by-line and made her the paper's chief reporter, and for the next six years she covered politics and football and prepared editorials. In l926, Miss Hickok left the TRIBUNE and, after a period of travel and ill-health, she went to New York. She worked, first, for about a year, for the MIRROR. Then, in 1928, she began work with the Associated Press, where she again found an editor, Martin A. White, who did not restrict her to the few areas of the profession traditionally allotted to women. Her speciality was political reporting, and she often shared campaign trains with dozens of her male colleagures. In the summer of 1928, while she was covering the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in New York City, Miss Hickok was introduced to Eleanor Roosevelt by Mrs. Roosevelt's secretary, Malvina Thompson. Mrs. Roosevelt was head of the Women's Divison of the Democratic National Committee during the 1928 campaign, and Miss Hickok would on what she called "dull days" at Democratic National Headquarters wander down to the Women's Division and look for a story. The two women formed during this period a slight acquaintance. Four years later, Miss Hickok was assigned by the Associated Press to cover the Presidential campaign of Franklin D. Roosevelt. She suggested that someone be assigned to cover Mrs. Roosevelt, but the A.P. resisted the idea until very late in the campaign when Roosevelt's victory appeared certain. In October 1932, Miss Hickok was assigned exclusively to Mrs. Roosevelt. For the final month of the campaign, and then for the four month interregnum period, the two women went everywhere together. By inauguration day, 1933, they had become close friends. Miss Hickok's press coverage of Mrs. Roosevelt ended on inauguration day, and she returned to New York. She found that her friendship with Mrs. Roosevelt had compromised her ability to continue her work. As a consequence, she resigned from the Associated Press in late June 1933. After a motoring trip with Mrs. Roosevelt through upstate New York, New England, Quebec and the Gaspe Peninsula, Miss Hickok began work, probably in August 1933, as a Chief Investigator for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. Her major duties in this position were to travel around the country and to report on both the effectiveness of local relief administrations and the physical and mental condition of those receiving relief. She also accepted from President Roosevelt in the spring of 1935 a special investigating assignment in connection with the administration of the National Emergency Council. During this period, Miss Hickok made two other extended trips with Mrs. Roosevelt: the first, in March 1934, to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands; the second, in July 1934, to San Francisco, Sacramento, Yosemite National Park, and Nevada. Miss Hickok resigned from the Federal Emergency Relief Administration in late November 1936. In January 1937, she accepted a position as director of promotion of the New York World's Fair. In her first few months with the Fair, Miss Hickok established the pattern of living -- that is, of commuting from her Manhattan apartment to her weekend and holiday retreat at Moriches, Long Island, the "Little House" on the estate of William S. Dana -- which is much in evidence in her correspondence with Mrs. Roosevelt during these years. She left the New York World's Fair in late January 1940, to take a post as assistant to the publicity director of the Democratic National Committee. Sometime shortly after the 1940 election, she transferred to the Women's Divison of the Democratic National Committee to become its executive director. She lived, during these years in Washington -- as she occasionally had during her work with the Federal Emergency Relief Administration -- at the White House. In March 1945, she resigned her post because of ill-health. From March 1945 until sometime in mid-1947, Miss Hickok lived in partial retirement, dependent for income primarily on the proceeds from her writing and on the generosity of her friends. She helped Eleanor Roosevelt and Congresswoman Mary Norton with several writing projects and was entered for a time on the latter's staff payroll. Sometime in mid-1947 she took a position with the women's division of the Democratic State Committee of New York. She may have held this post through 1952. Beginning with LADIES OF COURAGE (1954), which she wrote with Mrs. Roosevelt, Miss Hickok wrote several books, including THE STORY OF FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT (1956), THE STORY OF HELEN KELLER (1958), THE STORY OF ELEANOR ROOSEVELT (1959), THE TOUCH OF MAGIC: THE STORY OF HELEN KELLER'S GREAT TEACHER, ANNE SULLIVAN MACY (1961), RELUCTANT FIRST LADY (1962), and THE ROAD TO THE WHITE HOUSE (1962). Miss Hickok gave up her Moriches, Long Island, cottage sometime in the mid-1950's (maybe 1955) and moved to Hyde Park. She may have lived at Val-Kill cottage for several months in the fall of 1955, and perhaps longer. In late 1957 she was living in a cabin in the Lakewood Motor Court in East Park; by early 1960, she had moved to 19 Park Place in the village of Hyde Park, an address which she kept until her death on May 1, 1968. The papers of Lorena Hickok consist of three series, the largest of which is the Eleanor Roosevelt-Lorena Hickok correspondence. There are approximately 2,300 of Mrs. Roosevelt's letters and 1,000 of Miss Hickok's present in the series. Although Mrs. Roosevelt's half of the correspondence is probably nearly complete for its inclusive years, Miss Hickok's is complete probably only for the years 1937 through 1940. An appendix at the end of this finding aid breaks down by year the approximate number of letters in the series by each correspondent. The second series, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration papers, holds copies of the reports which Miss Hickok submitted to Harry Hopkins. Although the originals of most of these reports are in the papers of Harry Hopkins, there appear to be four in this collection which are not. They are those submitted from Athens, Georgia, January 11, 1934; from Augusta, Georgia, January 14, 1934; from Jesup, Georgia, January 16, 1934; and from Moultrie, Georgia, January 23, 1934. The third series, a correspondence and subject file, contains, besides bits and pieces of correspondence with over fifty people, considerable correspondence with Mary Norton, Congresswoman from New Jersey, Marion Harron, a member of the United States Tax Court, and Alicent Holt, a former high school teacher of Miss Hickok's. THE ELEANOR ROOSEVELT-LORENA HICKOK CORRESPONDENCE: BY CORRESPONDENT AND BY YEAR ER to LH LH to ER 1932 1 1 1933 39* 3** 1934 236 20** 1935 231` 17** 1936 310 46 1937 283 227 1938 289 195 l939 292 24l 1940 213 137 1941 92 50 1942 46 26 1943 44 20 1944 30 20 1945 48 19 1946 20 l 1947 18 l 1948 12 - l949 l - 1950-1962 102 - Total 2,336 l,024 * This is the number of holograph letters present for the year 1933. A typescript copy of what is apparently nearly the entire body of correspondence from Eleanor Roosevelt to Lorena Hickok, and which contains copies of 129 letters, is also present, and has been placed in the folder immediately following the combined 1933 holograph correspondence. The letters, as they appear in the typescript, have been edited. Not all the letters present in holograph are included in the typescript. ** Fragments of and excerpts from a few of Lorena Hickok's letters to Mrs. Roosevelt from the period 1933 through 1936 are present in the Federal Emergency Relief Administration series of this collection.

Correspondence, telegrams, transcripts of correspondence and of several of Mrs. Roosevelt's speeches and articles, itineraries, clippings, greeting cards, and invitations, and a small volume of miscellaneous material. Arranged chronologically, with itineraries, clippings, and miscellaneous and undated material gathered at the end of the series. The clippings included in this series are, with one or two exceptions, of Mrs. Roosevelt's MY DAY column. Those which were included with a letter have been attached to that letter; those which were loose have been gathered in a folder at the end of the series.

Reports, fragments of reports and correspondence, and "Introductory Chapter," and miscellaneous correspondence and expense account material related to Miss Hickok's work as Chief Investigator for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. Arranged in two subseries, and thereunder chronologically, and miscellaneous and expense account material gathered at the end of the series.

Correspondence, telegrams, manuscripts, newspaper copy, invitations, clippings, and financial and other miscellaneous material. Arranged alphabetically by correspondent and subject, and thereunder chronologically. Many of the correspondence items were enclosures from Mrs. Roosevelt to Miss Hickok. If the item was enclosed with a letter of Mrs. Roosevelt's, then the original of the enclosure was attached to its cover letter, and a copy was placed in this series. If the enclosure was loose, then it was simply filed in this series.

Correspondence, Eleanor Roosevelt to Lorena Hickok: first typescript copy

Correspondence, Eleanor Roosevelt to Lorena Hickok: second typescript copy.

Mrs. Roosevelt's itineraries

Clippings

Not dated and miscellaneous

197 matches returned.