ABSTRACT
In her private journal, Alva examined her feelings about Gunnar and tried to fathom what was going on between them, especially when they were with other people. This diary reveals the emotional costs of playing the conflicting roles demanded of her as the wife of an important politician, mother of three children, professional educator, and social reformer. Alva considered various terms on which her marriage might continue, if it continued at all. She assessed whether the inevitable conflict of egos with her husband would be tolerable if they pursued separate careers rather than working in partnership. She rejected both an open marriage and a divorce, but weighed the toll of staying with a demanding, egocentric husband. Confronting these stark choices, Alva rejected all of the available alternatives. After living together and working separately through the late 1940s, Alva and Gunnar had a long-distance marriage during the 1950s while both pursued international careers. They lived together for the last 25 years of their lives. Some kind of partnership survived, but much of the emotional core that bound them together had been irretrievably lost.
