Roosevelt eludes straightforward categorization contrary to conventional interpretation, she shared some of her husband's emotional and political complexity. To consider Eleanor simply prologue to Hillary, however, is to accept one of the too-easy images of ER. The comparisons to Hillary Clinton are obvious-both had unfaithful husbands, and both were smart, unconventional First Ladies. wrote, a 'tough and salty old lady'-who resisted stereotyping when she was alive, and constantly protested she was not interested in power while vigorously pursuing it.

While she is remembered as a saintly, long-suffering figure, we can forget she was an indefatigable, disciplined activist-as historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. In allowing us to study her own words, in letters, speeches, columns and diary entries, a different portrait of the much-lionized woman emerges-one of a pragmatic, savvy politician. It begins when Franklin Roosevelt died, and ends with the passage of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in which Eleanor played a crucial part. The recently published first volume of her papers, 'The Human Rights Years, 1945–48,' with a foreword by Hillary Clinton, provides important clues.

The fact that Eleanor kept this document for years is more revealing than the words themselves-did she believe she had qualities of leadership that were repressed, or thwarted by her position as First Lady? Despite all she achieved, and the esteemed place she holds in American history and affection, there's a central lingering question about her legacy: what would she have been capable of achieving on her own, without the constraints placed on her sex at the time, and without her marriage to Franklin Delano Roosevelt? This leads me to believe that many times you've had to cramp your style.' The palmist wrote that the finger which showed leadership 'is much bolder in your left hand, which shows inherent potentialities, than it is in your right hand which shows what actually happens. One particular analysis, in October 1939, tickled her so much that she kept it in the drawer of her desk, along with poems that inspired her. Eleanor Roosevelt, a woman known for her upright back and moral certitude, secretly enjoyed having her palms read.

Eleanor roosevelt volume 2