Blanche Wiesen Cook

Who is Blanche Wiesen Cook?

Blanche Wiesen Cook, Distinguished Professor of history at John Jay College in the City University of New York, is the author of Eleanor Roosevelt: Volume One 1884–1933, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize winning biography of Eleanor Roosevelt. Cook's biography is controversial because of her claims that Roosevelt had a lesbian affair with reporter Lorena Hickok. An out lesbian, Cook is also the author of Eleanor Roosevelt: Volume 2, The Defining Years, 1933–1938, and The Declassified Eisenhower: A Divided Legacy of Peace and Political Warfare. On October 21, 2013, the historian Douglas Brinkley mentioned on the television program "First Ladies" on CSPAN, that Professor Cook was currently writing Volume 3 of her Eleanor Roosevelt series.

She received the Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement from Publishing Triangle in 2010.