Lorena Hickok in The Great Depression

Lorena Hickok in The Great Depression

Lorena Hickok (1893–1968) was one of America's most prominent female journalists during the 1930s. 

The only woman assigned to cover the Roosevelt campaign in 1932, Hickok struck up a very close relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt, becoming the First Lady's most intimate friend and—some scholars believe—perhaps her lesbian lover.

During Franklin Roosevelt's first term, Hickok left her journalism career to work as the administration's eyes on the ground, chronicling the conditions of everyday life in Depression-struck America. Traveling all across the country, she filed a series of reports sent to federal relief administrator Harry Hopkins, providing vivid descriptions of the miseries endured by the American people during the Great Depression.