Anna Hall considered manners more important than feelings, and beauty most important of all.

From the beginning, she made Eleanor feel homely and unloved, always outside the closed circle that embraced her two younger brothers. Anna mocked her daughter’s appearance and chided her manner, calling her “Granny” because she was so serious, even at the age of two. Before company Eleanor was embarrassed to hear her mother explain that she was a shy and solemn child. And Eleanor wrote, “I never smiled.”

—Cook (1992)