Throughout there are numerous others in the story-romances, friends and family. Neither stopped thinking about the other. However, for a variety of reasons, Hick ultimately moved out of the White House and the relationship waned. While FDR engaged in numerous romantic dalliances, the relationship between Hick and Eleanor continued to grow. She gave up her job as a journalist and went to work for Harold Hopkins to help run Federal Emergency Relief. Eleanor also tells her story, about commencing her education in England and being forced back to America.Īfter FDR won the Presidential election, Hick and others moved into the White House. She ran away and joined a circus for a short period of time. I…looked at her in cheap, sensible serge dress and flat shoes and thought, who in the name of Christ has dressed you?” Hick and Eleanor met frequently and when FDR’s Secretary’s mother died, Eleanor invited Hick to join her on the trip to Potsdam for the funeral.Īs the novel describes the growth of their relationship, we learn that Hick came from a poor rural family in South Dakota, where she was abused and put to work at the age of 13. Upon first meeting Eleanor, Hick observed that “She was dull and pleasant for the first five minutes.

Hick met Eleanor when she was assigned to cover the Roosevelts while FDR was governor of New York and running for President. The story is told by Hick, as she looks back at their relationship during her later years.

White Houses is a fictional account of the romantic relationship between Eleanor Roosevelt and journalist Lorena Hickock.

White houses amy bloom