Dear Miss Perkins: A Story of Frances Perkins' Efforts to Aid Refugees from Nazi Germany

Rebecca Brenner Graham is a good historian but a disappointing biographer. Strangely, her book Dear Mis Perkins gives little insight into the noted woman who became the first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet, and the longest serving labor secretary, as well as a crafter of the New Deal promulgated by FDR.

Perkins doesn’t make an appearance in the book until well into the history of the events leading up to Nazi Germany. It takes a while to understand the important role she played in saving the lives of Jewish refugees, especially children, fleeing the Hitler regime. We learn little of her early life and the influences that led to her social justice work, except that she witnessed the historic Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, and spent some time working in Chicago’s Hull House.

But where is the woman called Frances in her formative years? What was she like as a woman in a man’s world and how did she cope with the misogyny that surrounded her? How did she feel about being called a Communist? Did she have a sense of bravado or humor or self-righteousness? Why is she not quoted sufficiently? When and where do we hear her speak? Where is the stuff of biography vs. history?

The most we get comes through an historical lens which Graham acknowledges: “To the extent that she’s known Perkins is an ideal tour guide for historic catastrophes that she weathered and the milestones she influenced.” The most moving part of the story comes from a selection of letters Perkins received, thus “Dear Miss Perkins,” but we never know how she reacted to them. Did she weep for the children whose advocates were trying to save them? Did she rage at the cruelty they suffered? Did she insist that immigration laws take into account that suffering?

Perhaps one can be more enlightened by reading the narrative version of Perkin’s interviews with writer Howard Taubman who wrote the book, The Roosevelt I Knew in 1946, which reveals that her ideas were largely attributed to FDR. To her credit she kept a low profile, worked hard, and tried to “leave no stone unturned.” But it is the biographer’s role to show us those attributes rather than to tell us about them.

Oddly, Graham writes in her Afterword that her book is a story of “a high-ranking government official [who] identified a problem, proposed solutions, built alliances among key players, and yet still faced defeat amid an overwhelming tide of bigotry.” This should have been the preface to a story that promised to introduce Frances Perkins and honor her life’s work. Sadly, the book doesn’t deliver that promise. For that, one might want to visit the Frances Perkins Center in Newcastle, Maine.