The First Lady of WWII

The First Lady of World War II: Eleanor Roosevelt's Daring Journey to the Frontlines and Back
By Shannon McKenna Schmidt

Copyright 2023

221 pages plus photos & bibliography

Twenty years ago, I started working for an older lawyer and former Virginia legislator who wanted to write a book about World War II and the Pacific front. He had started the book with another person, someone I know, and she moved, and recommended me. 

So, about a third of the book was written before he hired me. He had me read that to see if I was interested. We met once a week and he would dictate what he wanted to say. Frequently, what he wanted to say came from other sources - secondary sources, books others had written. Despite my concerns that he was plagiarizing, he wrote the whole book that way. He did some source research at the Woodrow Wilson Library at VMI, and he went to Norfolk once to some library there, but a good deal of his book and the facts within were lifted from secondary sources.

I footnoted everything as best I could, but the first part of the book I couldn't do much with since I hadn't been there at its inception. This was my first real foray into helping someone write a book, or copyediting, for that matter, so I learned a lot about writing a book and using a style sheet and so on and so forth.

But I also learned a lot about the Pacific Theater during World War II. So, when my friend gave me this book for my birthday, I was thrilled.

Because I'd helped that old fellow with his WWII book (which he did publish), I knew a lot more than I suspect many people might. The names of generals, admirals, and locations were familiar to me. I knew about Midway, Papua New Guinea, and other things.

But I didn't know that Eleanor Roosevelt had visited Guadalcanal and was there during an air raid.

In fact, I didn't know much about this First Lady until I read this book. She is fascinating and I will have to hunt up a full biography on her now to learn more about this dynamic personality who, I suspect, was a leader beyond compare. She was definitely formidable for the times.

As best I can tell, this book is well-researched, and the facts rang true to me from what I remember from my earlier foray into working on such matters. It is not footnoted per se, but there is an extensive bibliography with chapter notes and references in the back.

If you have any interest in World War II and want a glimpse into the exhausting and exhilarating life of Eleanor Roosevelt, I highly recommend this book.