Blanche Wiesen Cook

Blanche Wiesen Cook (born April 20, 1941 in New York City), Distinguished Professor of history at John Jay College in the City University of New York, is the author of Eleanor Roosevelt: Volume One 1884–1933, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize winning biography of Eleanor Roosevelt. Cook's biography is controversial because of her claims that Roosevelt had a lesbian affair with reporter Lorena Hickok. Ms. Cook, who is openly gay, is also the author of Eleanor Roosevelt: Volume 2 , The Defining Years, 1933–1938, and The Declassified Eisenhower: A Divided Legacy of Peace and Political Warfare, among other books. On October 21, 2013, the historian Douglas Brinkley mentioned on the television program "First Ladies" on CSPAN, that Professor Cook was currently writing the third and final volume of her Eleanor Roosevelt series. In 2016 it was published; it is titled Eleanor Roosevelt, Volume 3: The War Years and After, 1939-1962. She was also interviewed for and featured in Ken Burns' 2014 PBS TV documentary The Roosevelts: An Intimate History.

She received the Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement from Publishing Triangle in 2010.