In FDR Unmasked, Dr. Steven Lomazow has accomplished what no other author has achieved until now. Most previous biographies of Franklin Roosevelt talk at length about his well-known health issues, the paramount one being polio, with mention of severe hypertension and sometimes other heart-related concerns. To explain Roosevelt’s frequent illnesses, his immediate staff padded the disease inventory with such non-medical terms as “grippe, and “swamp fever.” The latter word was a malady invented by Marvin McIntyre, the President’s appointments secretary. But these illnesses were merely the tip of the iceberg. What all biographers have neglected is the most serious affliction of all–cancer.
A diagnosis of cancer, whether fatal or not, was the “kiss of death” for any politician in the mid-20th century, never mind the Chief Executive of the United States. Roosevelt’s prostate cancer and probable melanoma were never mentioned. Everyone from the White House physician and the President’s cardiologist to his daughter, Anna, did their utmost to propagate this deception during his 12 years in the White House or in the intervening 78 years since his death.
In 1990, as the U.S. Navy’s medical historian, I was the first person to interview Dr. Howard Bruenn, FDR’s cardiologist. Talking on the record with him was spellbinding. But I was as susceptible to this charming and seemingly authoritative physician as a multitude of others. When I pointed out the attention previously given to the curious pigmentation above FDR’s left eye, Bruenn responded, “That’s a photographic error or something. He never had anything wrong with that.” Needless to say, photos of Roosevelt taken from 1932 to 1940 show the suspected lesion either growing in size or suddenly absent.
FDR Unmasked is the most definitive, well-written, and exhaustively researched book ever written concerning the health of our Depression-era and wartime President. Perhaps it took a knowledgeable, investigative physician to decode the many medical clues embedded in public and private collections to accomplish this feat. Lomazow’s fascinating and essential read is for both the casual or serious student of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency.
— Jan Herman