ABSTRACT
Materials about Franklin D. Roosevelt are mountainous in volume, yet often disappointingly meager on the significant matters. Roosevelt kept every scrap of paper; but many of the great decisions were matured in personal discussions which were never recorded. To supplement the manuscript collections, one must certainly consult Elliott Roosevelt (ed.): F.D.R.: His Personal Letters, 4 vols., which contains many personal letters not available in the Roosevelt Library. The picture files at the Roosevelt Library are an extremely valuable aid to scholars. Roosevelts first campaign is thoroughly documented in the local newspapers: the Poughkeepsie News-Press, Eagle, Daily Eagle, Enterprise, and Courier. Palmers recorded interviews with John Mack, Thomas Leonard, and Grant Dickinson add interesting details and are available in FDRL. Any study of Roosevelt's legislative activities is inhibited by the fact that the New York State Legislature keeps no record of its debates. But newspaper reporters created a reasonably complete record for the period of Roosevelts Senatorship.
