Hick: The Trailblazing Journalist Who Captured Eleanor Roosevelt’s Heart
by Sarah Miller
Middle School, High School    Random House Studio/Random    384 pp.
5/25    9780593649091    $20.99
Library ed.  9780593649107    $23.99
e-book ed.  9780593649114    $12.99

Miller’s (Hanged, rev. 11/22) compelling biography charts the historic path famed journalist Lorena “Hick” Hickok (1893–1968) took from poverty and obscurity to the role of beloved confidante to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Born in Wisconsin, Hick was raised by an abusive father who threw the fourteen-year-old out following her mother’s death. After a series of grueling domestic servant jobs, Hick moved to Michigan, where she graduated from high school with honors in oration and writing. She honed her considerable talent at local newspapers in several Midwest cities, despite prejudice against women in the newsroom. From there she moved to the celebrated Associated Press in New York, where she was assigned stories such as the 1932 Lindbergh baby kidnapping. But it was the interviews she conducted with Roosevelt, and their resulting intimate friendship and romance, that changed the course of Hick’s life and inextricably linked the two until Roosevelt’s death in 1962. Miller’s meticulously researched and engrossing account, based in large part on the voluminous mail correspondence between the two women, sensitively delves into the ways Hick’s traumatic childhood affected her career and personal life; it also candidly discusses her queer identity while noting what remains unknown about her relationship with Roosevelt. Back matter includes an author’s note, an extensive bibliography, and detailed chapter source notes.

From the July/August 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.