The poignant and unforgettable true account of the deep, loving friendship between a handsome physician and the former First Lady, as seen on PBS’s The Roosevelts: An Intimate History
“I love you as I love and have never loved anyone else.” —Eleanor Roosevelt in a letter to Dr. David Gurewitsch, 1955
She was the most famous and admired woman in America. He was a strikingly handsome doctor, eighteen years her junior. Eleanor Roosevelt first met David Gurewitsch in 1944. He was making a house call to a patient when the door opened to reveal the wife of the president of the United States, who had come to help her sick friend. A year later, Gurewitsch was Mrs. Roosevelt’s personal physician, on his way to becoming the great lady’s dearest companion—a relationship that would endure until Mrs. Roosevelt’s death in 1962. Recounting the details of this remarkable union is an intimately involved chronicler: Gurewitsch’s wife, Edna.
Kindred Souls is a rare love story—the tale of a friendship between two extraordinary people, based on trust, exchange of confidences, and profound interest in and respect for each other’s work. With perceptiveness, compassion, admiration, and deep affection, the author recalls the final decade and a half of the former First Lady’s exceptional life, from her first encounter with the man who would become Mrs. Gurewitsch’s husband through the blossoming of a unique bond and platonic love.
Blended into her tender reminiscences are excerpts from the enduring correspondence between Dr. Gurewitsch and the First Lady, and a collection of personal photographs of the Gurewitsch and Roosevelt families. The result is a revealing portrait of one of the twentieth century’s most beloved icons in the last years of her life—a woman whom the author warmly praises as “one of the few people in this world in which greatness and modesty could coexist.”
“A perceptive and sympathetic private portrait.” —The New York Times Book Review
“Kindred Souls is a wonderful love story that opens to public view a fascinating chapter in Eleanor Roosevelt’s life. Edna Gurewitsch has re-created Eleanor’s last years with such remarkable empathy and such deep intuition that it seems as if Eleanor is alive once more.” —Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Team of Rivals
“A sensitive and astute portrait of a ‘rare and precious friendship’ . . . Edna’s gracious and involving account of the last chapter in Eleanor’s remarkably full life deepens understanding and appreciation of Eleanor Roosevelt, a woman of exceptional spirit, intelligence, and compassion.” —Booklist, starred review
“A perfectly pitched and insightful account . . . A love story of rare quality: intelligent, wise, and, above all, generous in spirit and understanding.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
Edna P. Gurewitsch is an art historian and former art dealer. Born in New York, she earned her bachelor of science degree from New York University and taught at the High School of Music & Art. Gurewitsch also served as vice president of Manhattan’s E. & A. Silberman Galleries. During her marriage to Dr. David Gurewitsch, personal physician of Eleanor Roosevelt, she maintained a close friendship with the former First Lady. Mrs. Roosevelt and David and Edna Gurewitsch bought and shared a New York City townhouse together, and the Gurewitsches accompanied Mrs. Roosevelt on many of her trips abroad.
Gurewitsch has one daughter, three grandchildren, and one stepdaughter. She lives in New York City.
