Passionate Mothers, Powerful Sons

July 3, 2023
Historian Gray (Alexander Graham Bell) presents a compassionate and vivid double portrait of Jennie Jerome and Sara Delano, accomplished women of privilege whose “lives followed similar paths” that would overlap through their famous offspring: Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Both born in 1854, the two Gilded Age debutantes married into political families, became burdened with “an ailing husband,” and were widowed in their 40s with the means to live independently. After France’s Second Empire collapsed in 1870, Jerome’s family abandoned Paris for England, where she quickly met and married Lord Randolph Churchill. By age 26, Lady Churchill had two sons, many admirers (including the future Edward VII), and a husband with a debilitating illness (possibly syphilis). Meanwhile, after Delano became the second wife of widower James Roosevelt, who was 26 years her senior, she nursed him while homeschooling their young son, Franklin, until he left for Groton at 14. Delano became a national figure in her own right during her son’s presidency, while Jerome, who died 20 years before her son became prime minister, defied gender norms by spearheading her own projects, including a literary magazine. Gray strikes an expert balance between the big picture and intimate glimpses of each woman. It’s an enlightening study of two mothers’ crucial influence upon sons who would make history.

July 15, 2023
A portrait of the mothers who nurtured two prominent politicians. Canadian historian Gray, author of Mrs. King and Sisters in the Wilderness, draws on abundant sources to create an engaging dual biography of Jennie Jerome Churchill (1854-1921), mother of Winston, and Sara Delano Roosevelt (1854-1941), mother of Franklin. The two had markedly different personalities, but "the examples of resilience, acumen, and loyalty that Jennie and Sara set, the initiatives they took, the impressive support that they provided, and the networks they built, helped mold their sons' characters and careers." Gray recounts each woman's family background, childhood, and young adulthood, when each met her husband. Jennie, 19, "shapely and coquettish," met 24-year-old Lord Randolph Churchill on a yacht where they were guests of the Prince and Princess of Wales; Sara was 26 when she married James Roosevelt, a widower twice her age, whom she had met at a small dinner party. For Jennie, the marriage meant entry into British aristocracy; for Sara, it meant alliance with a prestigious Knickerbocker family, though one not as wealthy as her own. Jennie's first son was born seven months after the wedding; Sara's only child--she was advised, after a difficult delivery, to have no more--was born in 1882. "Knowing there would be no more babies, she dedicated herself to protecting the one she had," writes Gray. "From the day of his birth, her son would be the center of her attention." Jennie's marriage, like her husband's political career, was stormy. The couple was always in debt, due in part to Jennie's expensive tastes. "Her zest in spending was one of her charms," a friend commented. Both were widowed in their 40s. While Jennie's flirtatiousness and three marriages led gossips to call her a "wicked seductress," Sara's imperiousness made her daughter-in-law, Eleanor, portray her as "snobbish, domineering, and unkind." Gray sees those stereotypes as ill-fitting, convincingly portraying her subjects as ambitious, astute, and determined. A sympathetic portrait of formidable women.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

August 1, 2023
Bestselling author Gray (Reluctant Genuis, 2006) brings readers a new, dual biography of Jennie Jerome Churchill and Sara Delano Roosevelt. The mothers of two of the twentieth century's most influential wartime leaders, Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, were born into a very different world than that of their sons. Both women came from wealthy families, married into old and prestigious lineages, and were raised with the morals, ideals, and constraints of women of the Victorian elite. Yet Jennie and Sara took control of their own lives and forged their own destinies, sometimes to the chagrin of their families. Jennie and Sara's personalities and choices were diametrically opposed but prove to be magnificent examples of resilience and loyalty and the driving forces behind sons propelled to the world stage. Gray's impeccable research and insightful look into social constraints of the time bring these women to life, highlighting the often-overlooked ways Jennie and Sara shaped not only their own destinies but those of their sons. Perfect for literary nonfiction, history, women's-history, and biography readers.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.