Notes

• "Impoverished young Americans had no greater champion during the Depression than Eleanor Roosevelt. As First Lady, Mrs. Roosevelt used her newspaper columns and radio broadcasts to crusade for expanded federal aid to children and teens deprived of adequate education, housing, clothing, and other necessities. She was the most visible spokesperson for the National Youth Administration, the New Deal’s central agency for aiding needy youths, and she was adamant in insisting that federal aid to young people be administered without discrimination so that it reached blacks as well as whites, girls as well as boys." "This activism on their behalf made Mrs. Roosevelt a beloved figure among poor teens and children, who between 1933 and 1941 wrote her thousands of letters describing their problems and asking for material assistance. Dear Mrs. Roosevelt presents nearly 200 of these extraordinary and deeply personal documents to open a window into the lives of the Depression’s youngest victims." "In their own words, the letter writers confide what it was like to be needy and young during the worst economic crisis in American history. They poignantly depict the mental, emotional, and physical tolls of poverty on their lives and their families. But their letters are more than a record of suffering; they are also a testament to the idealism of youth. Many young writers, for example, insisted that in a democratic society no one should be forced to drop out of school because of poverty and called for the New Deal to do more to right such inequities."–BOOK JACKET