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Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage

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Date and time
Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Biographer Hazel Rowley delves into the lives of one of American history's most fascinating couples, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. In *Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage*, Hazel Rowley describes the remarkable courage and lack of convention--private and public--that kept FDR and Eleanor together. She reveals a partnership that was both supportive and daring. Franklin, especially, knew what he owed to Eleanor, who was not so much behind the scenes as heavily engaged in them. Their relationship was the product of FDR and Eleanor's conscious efforts--a partnership that they created according to their own ambitions and needs. Set against the great upheavals of the Depression and World War II, Rowley paints a portrait of a tender lifelong companionship, born of mutual admiration and compassion. Most of all, she depicts an extraordinary evolution--from conventional Victorian marriage to the bold and radical partnership that has made Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt go down in history as one of the most inspiring and fascinating couples of all time.

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Hazel Rowley, brought up in England and Australia, lives in New York City. She is currently writing a book called *Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: An Extraordinary Marriage*, to be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Hazel Rowley's essays have appeared four times in *The Best Australian Essays*. Her essay "Beauvoir, Brazil, and 'Christina T'" was published in *BookForum* in April/May 2007. Back in December 1996, she mourned the dramatic changes in tertiary education in an article published in *The Australian*, called "Universities are losing on points." She has published articles in *Partisan Review*,* Mississippi Quarterly*, *Antioch Review*, *Contemporary Literature*, *Prose Studies*, *a/b: Auto/Biography Studies*, *Texas Studies in Literature and Language*, *Southerly and Westerly*, and has reviewed books for *The Times Literary Supplement* (UK),* The London Times Higher Education Supplement*, *Boston Globe*,* Washington Post*, *The Nation*, and *L.A. Times*. A passionate speaker, she has appeared at numerous book festivals and literary events in the United States, Canada, the UK, France, and Australia. Her recent speaking engagements include the Athenaeum (Boston), the Smithsonian (Washington), the New York Society Library, the Alliance Francaise, Chicago, and the Sydney Writers' Festival.
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