The Three Graces of Val-Kill

Eleanor Roosevelt, Marion Dickerman, and Nancy Cook in the Place They Made Their Own

By: Emily Herring Wilson

Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne

The Three Graces of Val-Kill changes the way we think about Eleanor Roosevelt. Emily Wilson examines what she calls the most formative period in Roosevelt's life, from 1922 to 1936, when she cultivated an intimate friendship with Marion Dickerman and Nancy Cook, who helped her build a cottage on the Val-Kill Creek in Hyde Park on the Roosevelt family land. In the early years, the three women - the "three graces", as Franklin Delano Roosevelt called them - were nearly inseparable and forged a female-centered community for each other, for family, and for New York's progressive women. Examining this network of close female friends gives listeners a more comprehensive picture of the Roosevelts and Eleanor's burgeoning independence in the years that marked Franklin's rise to power in politics.

Wilson takes care to show all the nuances and complexities of the women's relationship, which blended the political with the personal. Val-Kill was not only home to Eleanor Roosevelt but also a crucial part of how she became one of the most admired American political figures of the 20th century. In Wilson's telling, she emerges out of the shadows of monumental histories and documentaries as a woman in search of herself.

©2017 Emily Herring Wilson (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Wonderful storytelling!

I would highly recommend this book for those like me who are Eleanor Roosevelt admirers. The stories of this relationship with these two women are necessarily shortchanged in Eleanor Roosevelt biographies that cover the entire depth and breadth of a very complicated and interesting life. This one focuses more on Eleanor than Nan and Marianne, but that is inevitable. The calm richness of the narrator’s voice and the most interesting telling of stories we haven’t heard from this perspective made for delightful listening the weekend after Christmas.

An emotional reflection

A deep, emotional reflection on three lives intertwined by love and circumstance. This book offers an understanding of Eleanor Roosevelt grounded in both her insecurities and her indomitable will to grow and change throughout her complex, demanding life, bolstered by the love of two close friends.

Beautifully written and deeply felt

Loved ever moment of it and learning not only about Eleanor, her friends and phases but about the complexity of friendship in general, its ebbs and flows, and the author's own deep insightfulness.

Delightful addition to the Roosevelt’s legacy

4 th book in the audible collection, must tour Hyde Park soon! Added insight to the complexity of Eleanor Roosevelt and more important understanding of my mother!

Friends

Great story of friendship easy to listen to and very informative very respectful and discrete

No thank you

I didn’t even get very far into the book, the audio quality was so poor and choppy that it was impossible to get into the story.