FDR Inscribes A Photograph To His "Sidekick", Louis McHenry Howe
Louis McHenry Howe was FDR's trusted aide and confidant. When Roosevelt was overcome by the polio that would leave him unable to walk for the rest of his life, he retired to the family estate in New Hyde Park with his wife, Eleanor, who was suffering emotional problems of her own. For the Roosevelts it was the low point of their lives. Louis Howe then moved in with them, leaving his own family behind. He set to work to lift Roosevelt's spirits and maintain his connection to the world of politics. This rare letter by Howe, written on the stationary of FDR's company, The Fidelity & Deposit Company of Maryland, is an example of political damage control. Howe assures the recipient, a U.S. Marshal, that the future President's paralysis was "very mild" and he "would suffer no permanent effect." That of course was not true. The letter is signed "Louis M. Howe" It was a great loss to the Roosevelts when Louis McHenry Howe died fifteen years later, in 1936.
