Curtis and Mariana Roosevelt
Curtis and Marina Roosevelt at their home in Southern France
The Living New Deal is delighted to announce that Curtis Roosevelt, eldest grandson of Franklin and Eleanor, has joined our Advisory Board. Curtis has written many essays about his grandparents and his experiences as a boy in the White House. A memoir, Too Close to the Sun: Growing Up in the Shadow of My Grandparents, Franklin and Eleanor, was published in 2008. Curtis holds a master’s degree from Columbia University and worked as an administrator at the New School for Social Research and Columbia. He also held posts at the United Nations and was head of Dartington College of Arts in England. He is happily retired and living in southern France with his wife, Mariana.
I am doing a national history day project on your famous grandfather, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and I thought I can interview you for my project.
Can you please answer the following question please:
How did the New Deal impact your life? Others?
Were you involved in any of the beautiful work of Franklin?
How old were you when he died?
Do you know why he died?
Is Franklin one of your favorite presidents? Please don’t think of him as a grandfather but as a person you heard over his fireside chats?
Sincerely,
Bethaney Nobles
Bethany,
Mr. Roosevelt lives in France and we are not able to give out his contact information. You may want to look at his book “Too Close to the Sun,” which will answer a lot of your questions. If you have further questions, you may want to try contacting him through the publisher’s website.
https://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/book/ebook/too-close-to-the-sun/9780786726813
Good luck with you National History Day project!
We also have a lot of resources about Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal available on our website under the “Resources” tab.
sincerely,
Alex Tarr
Project Manager