ROOSEVELT AND HOPKINS (979 pp.)—Robert E. Sherwood—Harper ($6).
On the evening of July 27, 1941, a skinny, sickly civilian clambered aboard a PBY Catalina at Invergordon, Scotland. His correct, grey Homburg hat bore the initials of Britain's wartime Prime Minister. The pasty-faced passenger had no official title: he was going to Moscow to see Marshal Joseph Stalin as the personal emissary of the President of the U.S. In fact, the trip was the thin man's own idea. But President Roosevelt had given Harry Hopkins his blessing, and Winston Churchill had given him his hat, when Hopkins lost his own.
The mission to Moscow and the gift of the hat were, in their differing ways, typical of both the confidence and the affection that Hopkins commanded from the world's most powerful leaders during World War II. Roosevelt created him, then leaned on him. Churchill sized him up and unconditionally awarded him his respect and friendship. Stalin, Sherwood implies, was more frank with Hopkins than with any other U.S. representative. Harry Hopkins, the chronically ill, chronically broke son of an Iowa harnessmaker, a poor speaker and a worse writer, became perhaps the world's most important minister without portfolio during the greatest crisis in modern history.
From 40 Filing Cases. In Roosevelt and Hopkins, Playwright Robert Sherwood (Idiot's Delight, Abe Lincoln in Illinois) has written the best book on World War II by an American. The title belies the vast scope of Sherwood's effort. This is not only the story of Hopkins in the role of personal chief of staff and messenger of F.D.R. It is the one book so far which adequately provides 1) a sympathetic but candid exposition of Roosevelt's domestic, foreign and military dilemmas throughout the war, and how he met them; 2) an informed, balanced and simultaneous view of the U.S., British and Russian positions as events created and altered them; 3) a thoroughly documented look at the Big Three (F.D.R., Churchill, Stalin) in action, from the vantage point of an expert dramatist who was often on the scene he describes.
Like several other historians of the period, Sherwood himself was on the inside track in World War II. He was head of the Overseas Branch of OWI; as one of Roosevelt's speech writers for five years, he frequently lived at the White House, heard plenty and knew F.D.R.'s mind. Besides being on the inside track, he had a head start: the use of 40 filing cabinets of papers left by Hopkins.
In these files, Sherwood found the notes that Harry used to pass to F.D.R. and which sometimes changed the course of history (one chit persuaded F.D.R. to make the unfortunate reparations concessions at Yalta). And here was F.D.R.'s surprising promise, as recorded by Hopkins, to back Hopkins for the presidency in 1940.