Closest Companion: He Unknown Story of the Intimate Relationship Between Franklin Roosevelt and Margaret Suckley

Margaret (``Daisy'') Suckley, Franklin D. Roosevelt's distant cousin and the archivist at his Hyde Park, N.Y., library, was a frequent companion of the president at the White House, yet until now the depth of their warm friendship was not realized. When she died at 99 in 1991, friends found under her bed a suitcase stuffed with thousands of pages of her diaries, and letters to and from FDR, dating from 1933 until his death in 1945. Skillfully distilled and woven together by acclaimed Roosevelt biographer Ward, these writings detail her adoration and love of FDR and his great affection toward her in the course of a relationship that for a time spilled over into giddy flirtation. Included are 38 never-before-seen letters from Roosevelt to Suckley that provide an invaluable portait of FDR in his off-hours. A measure of the extraordinary trust he placed in Suckley is that he confided to her details of his secret meeting with Churchill off Canada's coast in August 1941 and of the impending D-Day invasion, as well as his frustrations with his job and his plans for the postwar world. Photos. (Apr.)