The idea for such a self-sufficient community originated when Eleanor Roosevelt learned through her friend, Lorena Hickok, of a plan to relocate a group of West Virginia coal miners to a nearby farm with the intention that they could combine subsistence farming with simple industries to reclaim their economic footing.
Cook's biography is controversial because of her claims that Roosevelt had a lesbian affair with reporter Lorena Hickok.
Hickok encouraged or inspired several of Eleanor Roosevelt's initiatives, including her syndicated column, her all-women press conferences, and her planned community at Arthurdale, West Virginia.
She has performed the role of Reverend Mother in Nunsense over 1500 times and in 2002 she played Lorena Hickok in Michael John LaChiusa's stage musical First Lady Suite.
John and Lorena Bobbitt | Wild Bill Hickok | Lorena Hickok | Lorena Rojas | Lorena Gale | Lorena |