RTL's birth

[Linda Anderson]

It would be interesting to speculate how Lincoln would have lived his life if he had not married Mary.

As for the Roosevelts, Franklin's affair with Lucy Mercer and Eleanor's discovery of their love letters changed their lives forever. They stayed together for Franklin's political career and because Franklin's very wealthy mother threatened to take away her financial support. Doris Kearns Goodwin in No Ordinary Time writes that Joe Alsop observed "that Roosevelt's disappointment in this great love helped to banish the superficial aspects of his personality, 'he emerged tougher and more resilient, wiser and more profound even before his struggle with polio.'

"Though the discovery of the affair had liberating dimensions for Eleanor, leading her to forge a new sense of herself in the world, the hurt would endure forever, finding expressions in sudden flashes of anger, unpredictable changes of mood, immobilizing depressions."