ROOSEVELT, Eleanor.

The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt.

New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers , 1961.

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Out of Stock Item Number: RRB-5021

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Hand made by the Harcourt Bindery. ~90 days

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"IT IS BETTER TO LIGHT A CANDLE THAN CURSE THE DARKNESS": EXCEPTIONALLY SCARCE PRESENTATION FIRST EDITION OF ELEANOR ROOSEVELT’S AUTOBIOGRAPHY, 1961

First edition of the final autobiography of one of the most remarkable Americans of the twentieth century. Octavo, original cloth. Inscribed by the author on the half title page, "Inscribed for Urana Clarke with good wishes Eleanor Roosevelt." The recipient was Urana Clarke, author of The Heavens Are Telling: The Story of the Sky. Fine in a near fine price-clipped dust jacket. Copies of Eleanor Roosevelt's Autobiography are rare signed and inscribed as it was published only one year before her death. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. An exceedingly scarce presentation copy.

Eleanor Roosevelt’s Autobiography, published only one year before her death in November 1962, revisits and continues This is My Story, published in 1937. The niece of Theodore Roosevelt, Eleanor married a Columbia University law student named Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who gradually ascended in the world of New York politics to reach the presidency in 1932. Throughout his three terms, Eleanor Roosevelt was not only intimately involved in FDR's personal and political life but also led women's organizations and youth movements, and fought for consumer welfare, civil rights, and better housing standards. During World War II she traveled with her husband to meet leaders of many powerful nations; after his death in 1945 she worked as a UN delegate, chairman of the Commission on Human Rights, newspaper columnist, Democratic Party activist, and diplomat, and was a world traveler. By the end of her life, Eleanor Roosevelt was recognized around the world for her fortitude and commitment to the ideals of liberty and human rights. Her autobiography constitutes a self-portrait no biography can match for its candor and liveliness, wisdom, tolerance, and breadth of view—a self-portrait of one of the greatest American humanitarians of our time.