Beloved Island: Franklin & Eleanor and the Legacy of Campobello [Paperback]

Jonas Klein (Author), U.S. Senator George Mitchell (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2002

This biography chronicles the lives of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, focusing on the influence of their summer home on Campobello Island. This personal history examines the Roosevelts' heritage and traditions and explores their public trials, tragedies, and triumphs, as well as the frustrations and disappointments of their private lives. Campobello played a vital role in the formation of character for both Franklin and Eleanor, providing outlets for physical activity and emotional escape. At Campobello, Franklin was afflicted by polio, the most defining event in both their private lives and public careers. This story is peppered with anecdotes, personal letters, and reminiscences of the friends, family, and staff who played important roles in their lives.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Klein successfully evokes the spirit of summer days at Campobello IslandAin the Bay of Fundy, off the province of New Brunswick, CanadaAwhich not only served as a summer home for Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, but also provided a peaceful backdrop to a life of marital troubles, illness (Franklin contracted polio one summer at Campobello) and the hectic activity and public scrutiny of political life. As Klein relates, FDR was first introduced to Campobello as an infant by his parents, James and Sara. He grew to love hiking, fishing and sailing, and became an expert sailboat navigator. His wife-to-be, Eleanor, was invited to Campobello, a proper setting for introductions among wealthy young men and women, and the two fell in love. She enjoyed the relaxed life there, and later found refuge in a cottage that she and FDR acquired; indeed, it was the only place she felt truly at home. Klein, a communications manager who lives on an island off Maine, successfully evokes the Northeast island aesthetic, a summer haven for many of the most privileged Americans, particularly before the 1920s and '30s. Much of the political and personal events he provides as background material, such as FDR's affair with Lucy Mercer, have been widely written about, but the everyday anecdotes about Campobello are diverting and interesting. Eleanor and FDR fished together ("Eleanor was usually more successful than Franklin"), sailed on their boats, the Half Moon and Vireo, and took numerous cliff walks. After being stricken with polio in 1921, FDR did not return to his "beloved island" for 12 years, although Eleanor continued to visit with their children and friendsAfor, as Klein so well illustrates, it was a mainstay in their busy and not always joyful lives. (Their home is now in the middle of Roosevelt Campobello Park, jointly created in 1964 by the U.S. and Canada and frequented by tourists.) Photos. (Oct.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

The popular 1960 movie Sunrise at Campobello familiarized the public with Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt's summer home, the site where he was stricken with polio. In 1964, as the result of Eleanor's suggestion to JFK, the locale was memorialized as the Roosevelt Campobello International Park, with the couple's cottage as its centerpiece. The author of this book, a Maine resident, attempts to portray the influence of this Canadian island on the lives of its two most famous personalities. Campobello was where FDR's father taught him to sail, and it was also Eleanor's first private home with Franklin. But it was only one of the wealthy couple's multiple homes, especially after they reached the White House. Despite the book's premise, the reader is left with the distinct impression that it was the Roosevelts who shaped Campobello rather than the reverse. Nonetheless, the biography and the setting make this a readable and enjoyable story. Recommended for public and academic collections.DWilliam D. Pederson, Louiiana State Univ., Shreveport
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Paul S. Eriksson (September 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0839710364
• ISBN-13: 978-0839710363
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,429,192 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptionally well researched & well-written, February 12, 2001

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beloved Island: Franklin & Eleanor and the Legacy of Campobello (Hardcover)

Beloved Island: Franklin & Eleanor And The Legacy Of Campobello examines how the Roosevelt summer home on New Brunswick's Campobello Island (a remote Canadian location) had a significant physical and emotional influence on their lives and the events of their day. While acknowledging the Roosevelt's' traditions and background, Jonas Klein presents a fresh perspective on their public trials and triumphs as well as their personal frustrations and private disappointments as showcased by their Campobello residency. It was at Campobello that Franklin was stricken with polio, that Eleanor found peace and refuge from a demanding and unsympathetic world, and that their personal and political relationship as formed in a manner that would serve them both to the end of their lives. Exceptionally well researched, well-written, insightful, informative, and totally engaging biography.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The daily lives of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, December 7, 2002

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beloved Island: Franklin & Eleanor and the Legacy of Campobello (Paperback)

Beloved Island: Franklin & Eleanor And The Legacy Of Campobello by Jonas Klein is a touching, memorable, biographical portrayal of two genuinely great figures of 20th Century American history. Here presented are the daily lives of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, and how their summer home on Campobello Island influenced them, and rounds out an impressive and painstaking recreation of their personal experiences with anecdotes, personal letters, and the memories of aides, family, and friends. A welcome and much appreciated contribution to the growing library of literature dedicated to the life, thought, and achievements of this politically and socially influential (and often controversial) couple, Beloved Island is an informative and insightful study of the often-hidden inner side of these two remarkable American leaders.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Move Over, Stephen Ambrose, July 1, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Beloved Island: Franklin & Eleanor and the Legacy of Campobello (Hardcover)

This is a well-researched and well-written glimpse of one of the most famous and influential couples of the 20th Century. It reads extremely well while casting new light on two already-much studied lives but from an entirely new perspective. Jonas Klein proposes that FDR and Eleanor were in some measure defined by the Campobello experience and makes a credible case for it.

Before picking up Beloved Island I had just finished reading one more of Stephen AmbroseÕ books on World War II and, quite frankly, had tired a little of the rhythm and predictability in his technique of stringing together many individual Òoral historiesÓ to create a coherent whole. He does it very well, of course, but Jonas Klein does it better. Working mostly from snapshot detail in correspondence, I presume, Klein succeeds in portraying the larger portraits of personality, emotion, relationships, and other intangibles that make figures from history what they really are.

Though not quite a Òone sittingÓ experience, this little book leads us gently to further thought and deeper understanding about Franklin and Eleanor. ItÕs a good book.