Our first episode of Hysterical History kicks off with the iconic Eleanor Roosevelt and her (potential - and likely) queer identity. Discover the power of women in 1920's and 30's America. You co-host Whitley Trusler dives into the personal and political lives of Eleanor Roosevelt and her supposed lover Lorena Hickok, known as Hick.
Who is "Hick?"
Lorena Alice "Hick" Hickok was a pioneering American journalist and devoted friend (read: lover???) and mentor to Eleanor Roosevelt, who redefined the definition of a First Lady. After leaving home at 14, Hickok began her career as a reporter for the Minneapolis Tribune. After a sordid love affair with her roommate fell apart, Hick found her way to New York, eventually taking a position at the Associated Press. She became America’s best-known female reporter by the year 1932.
The Story of Eleanor & Hick
This story piqued our interest after seeing a Tweet about Amelia Earhart and Eleanor Roosevelt taking a night time plane ride to Baltimore after becoming bored at a White House event. This stood out as a potentially queer moment. While no evidence could be found in the corners of the gay internet of Roosevelt and Earhart, we did uncover a relationship with journalist Lorena Hickok.
There are historians who disagree that Eleanor and Hick had a romantic relationship, but let me lay this out for you. Here is what we found:
A merely political marriage to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) - she once told her daughter Sara she did not like having intercourse with FDR
Eleanor's close circle of friends HAPPENED to be a group of out lesbians
Hick receiving a note from her editor at the Associated Press after interviewing Eleanor that read: Don't get too close to your sources.
Spending nearly everyday together in New York before the Roosevelt's moving to the White House (concerts, plays, late-night candlelit dinners)
Discovery of nearly 4,000 letters the women wrote to each other, some explicitly laying out their more intimate relations
We found this wonderful article from AutoStraddle.com called https://www.autostraddle.com/24-very-gay-excerpts-from-eleanor-roosevelts-love-letters-with-lorena-hickok-346115/ (24 Very Gay Excerpts from Eleanor Roosevelt’s Love Letters with Lorena Hickok). Groundbreaking. I do not know why historians disagree. Here are a few excerpts:
Eleanor to Lorena, March 9, 1933
“My pictures are nearly all up & I have you in my sitting room where I can look at you most of my waking hours! I can’t kiss you so I kiss your picture good night & good morning!”
Eleanor to Lorena, November 17, 1933
“I’m getting so hungry to see you.”
Lorena to Eleanor, December 5, 1933
“Only eight more days. Twenty-four hours from now it will be only seven more—just a week! I’ve been trying today to bring back your face—to remember just how you look. Funny how even the dearest face will fade away in time. Most clearly I remember your eyes with a kind of teasing smile in them, and the feeling of that soft spot just northeast of the corner of your mouth against my lips. I wonder what we’ll do when we meet—what we’ll say. Well—I’m rather proud of us, aren’t you? I think we’ve done rather well.”
I think it is rather clear the love the two felt for each other and the intense relationship they shared.
