Publish Date: April 17, 1939
Cover Story: Oracle
How TIME Covered the News: Outspoken and tireless, Eleanor Roosevelt was the longest-serving First Lady in United States history (1933-1945). Tasked with helping her permanently paralyzed husband, Roosevelt was forced to become a central figure in politics, even attending events on his behalf. In the spring of 1939, America was eagerly anticipating a possible summer visit by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth and King George VI — yet another state function at which Mrs. Roosevelt would play a key role.
“Today she still gives her readers a candid, cheery running account of her life’s incredibly varied minutiae. She reports plays, pictures, people seen, babies patted, books read, weather experienced, letters received, etc. But in the past six months she has also “come out” unqualifiedly on a wide variety of controversial issues. As the ruling topic of her thoughts, the scrambled world has succeeded her family’s Sunday evening scrambled egg feasts.”