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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.917092
EAN: 9781586485542
Edition: 1
ISBN: 1586485547
Label: PublicAffairs
Manufacturer: PublicAffairs
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: October 27, 2008
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Studio: PublicAffairs
Alternate Versions: Click to Display
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Product Description:
This vivid, honest memoir of growing up in the Roosevelt White House during the Great Depression is a delicious read for anyone interested in American history or the presidency.Curtis Roosevelt was born five and half months after Black Tuesday, when the New York Stock Exchange crash in October, 1929, paved the way, not only for the Great Depression, but also, for his grandfather's presidency. History had his family in its grip, and he had no choice but to go along for the ride.Just three years old, Curtis arrived at his grandparents' household at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue only a very short time after they themselves had begun to unpack. He and his sister, Eleanor, were the country's 'First Grandchildren', a pint-sized double act, known to the media as "Sistie and Buzzie" (pronounced as one word). "Too Close to the Sun" is his intimate account of growing up in the Roosevelt White House. With nostalgia and candour, Roosevelt describes his role as a tiny planet circling the dual suns of his grandfather and grandmother, known to him as Papa and Grandmere. Blending self-abasement, humour, resentment and affection, Roosevelt describes the emotional impact of living his formative years with two larger-than-life figures, of having little identity beyond being one-half of the "Sistie and Buzzie" show, and of being kept on a short leash by everyone from his grandmother to his bodyguard."Too Close to the Sun" offers a rich chronicle of daily life in the Depression era White House and a moving tale of coming to terms with an untraditional childhood. It is also a fascinating portrait of arguably the most influential and inspirational figure in modern American history. Curtis Roosevelt was there. And he will take readers along with him, into the long-ago world that formed him-for better or for worse.
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wonderful , fairly accurate story. He certainly was a Roosevelt product of his time. None have come even close to FDR, President when I grew up.His story as he probably was allowed to see it, certainly not the whole truth as has been written otherwise.....
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Written by the grandson of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, this memoir is a unique perspective of what it was like to grow up in the bright spotlight (the sun) of the White House. Born Curtis Dall, then Curtis Boettinger after his stepfather, and finally Curtis Roosevelt, he is the son of Franklin and Eleanor's oldest child (and only daughter), Anna. Anna divorced her husband Curtis Dall and moved to the White House when her two children were only six and three years old. Known as "Sistie and Buzzie," the First Grandchildren immediately became the darlings of the press.
Curtis writes that his life in the White House offered "immense and wonderful privilege," yet admits it had a double edge. "Life outside the protection and isolated White House cocoon became hugely distorted, especially for an impressionable youngster like me . . . Intoxicated by the exhilarating environments . . . I created a dream world that protected me and it became a form of addiction."
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Public glimpses inside the White House (especially from family members) are rare, so when Curtis Roosevelt produced this fine volume, "Too Close to the Sun", it allowed readers not to get just a few snippets of casual observations but a dozen years of day-to-day remembrances. Unusual as it is for a grandchild of a president to inhabit the White House, Roosevelt did just that as he lived on and off with his famous grandparents from the time of FDR's first inauguration until the death of our thirty-second president twelve years later. In "Too Close to the Sun", the author reveals not only his memories of that time but also the often internecine relationships that went with all of the Roosevelts. It's a book worth every page.
Curtis Roosevelt, the oldest grandson of FDR, was just three years old when his famous grandfather became president. It was a privileged upbringing, to say the least. This sheltering led to a fearful childhood as the elder Roosevelts made sure their children ... Read More
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Curtis Roosevelt was a child star. The oldest grandson of FDR, he and his sister became media celebrities before the term existed. In the case of Curtis (Buzzie) his childhood was swallowed by it.
His family insisted on propriety and tradition. Children apparently were accepted and graded according to a cultural template emphasizing the outcome as an adult rather than the process of becoming one. In a world where the governess or the nanny or the hired person became the substitute parent, childhood seemed to be tolerated by the family more than enjoyed by the child.
This lovely yet discomfiting book turns out to be about bewilderment and disappointment in a seductive world sadly short on adults warm enough, open enough or patient enough to make a child feel truly loved and secure. The author explains rather than complains while recounting childhood with a grandmother (Eleanor) with problems of her own and a mother (Anna) who appears more interested in satisfying ... Read More
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I enjoyed this book very much, and finished it in only a few sittings. I appreciated Mr. Roosevelt's impressions of living in the White House and sharing events with FDR. His disappointment over his parents' divorce and his longing to spend more time with each of them is touching and relevant to children today, even to those who don't have the additional stress of living in the public eye. He is not asking for the reader's pity, but instead describes how growing up in a wealthy and famous family has many benefits, but is no more perfect than any of our ordinary lives.
I would be interested in reading a sequel. I'd like to learn Mr. Roosevelt's impressions of the United Nations, considering how it seems to be less effective today than it was when it was founded.
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