The First Lady of World War II: Eleanor Roosevelt’s Daring Journey to the Frontlines and Back

Schmidt (co-author, Novel Destinations) has written a succinct narrative of Eleanor Roosevelt’s secret trip to the Pacific at the height of World War II in August of 1943. The author’s ability to combine place with subject is unsurpassed here. Eleanor Roosevelt had carefully chronicled her trip to Australia, New Zealand, Guadalcanal, and other areas of the Pacific both through her own writing and in her “My Day” columns. Schmidt, however, draws on additional sources involved during that time to provide a complete view of her important contributions to morale and to improvements in the conditions in these areas. While the work centers on Eleanor’s travels and contributions, it also serves as a mini-history of this theater of World War II. Roosevelt herself only devotes a small chapter of her 1958 autobiography to her travels in the Pacific.