Chapters 1, 2, and 3 Summary

Eleanor Roosevelt is Blanche Wiesen Cook's biography of Eleanor Roosevelt from her birth in 1884 until the time she steps into the role of First Lady of the United States in 1933. Cook captures Eleanor's troubled childhood that occurred in spite of a privileged lifestyle, her marriage and life with Franklin D. Roosevelt, and her career as a champion for women's rights and social reforms.

Eleanor Roosevelt's heritage is one of privilege and wealth, with both her parents being from socially prominent families in New York. Eleanor's mother, Anna Livingston Ludlow Hall, is, according to Eleanor, "one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen." Anna Hall marries Elliott Roosevelt in 1883 and Eleanor is born in October the following year. Anna is only twenty when Eleanor is born and unprepared to be a mother and society wife in one of the most...