'Franklin And Eleanor': A Marriage Ahead Of Its Time from NPR Podcast Fresh Air

One of the most amazing anecdotes in Hazel Rowley's crackling new biography of the Roosevelt marriage called, simply, Franklin and Eleanor, has, on the surface, nothing to do with their personal relationship; yet, it speaks volumes about the trust the first couple placed in each other: In November 1939, as the Red Scare was gathering force, the House Un-American Activities Committee subpoenaed members of a college student group called the American Youth Congress to testify about their organization's ties to the Communist Party. Getting wind of this event, Eleanor asked Franklin's permission "to turn up unannounced" at the hearing. He gave it, and the first lady took off. At the noontime break, the students still hadn't been called to testify, so Eleanor invited them back to lunch at the White House. When she found out the students had nowhere to sleep that night, she invited all 10 of them to move into the White House — the People's House, after all — for the duration. That evening, the students — some of them poor, first-generation Americans — dined with the president and discussed the HUAC, as well as other breaking news, including the Soviet invasion of Finland.

Download the podcast here. Check this webpage out, from the program's official site. See also: Tete-a-Tete: Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, Richard Wright: The Life and Times