During the New Deal, Eleanor Roosevelt redefined the role of first lady and Frances Perkins broke ground as the first woman in the cabinet. And then there was Marguerite LeHand, whose official position was personal secretary to the president, Franklin D. Roosevelt.

But a new book, Kathryn Smith’s “The Gatekeeper: Missy LeHand, FDR, and the Untold Story of the Partnership That Defined a Presidency,” and the private letters and other documents on which it is in part based, reveal that LeHand’s unceremonious title masked the outsize role she played. (Just like Perkins, she was a secretary, as most people understand the job title, in name only.)

LeHand was also Roosevelt’s companion, confidante, adviser and hostess at the White House and at Warm Springs, in Georgia. She counseled him on cabinet and court appointments and was the only staff member who referred to him as “F.D.” She also, at times, had the sole authority to forward a call at night to his bedroom, as she did when her fiancé, Ambassador William C. Bullitt Jr., telephoned from Europe in 1939 to report that Germany had invaded Poland.

“Missy was the Swiss Army knife of the White House,” Ms. Smith writes in her book. “A formidable, multitalented multitasker.”

Just how formidable, Ms. Smith discovered from the private letters.

“The coin of the realm in biography is ‘never before seen primary source material,’” said Ms. Smith, a journalist who has incorporated the trove of newly revealed documents into her book, the first full-fledged biography of LeHand. “The letters, pictures, invitations and newspaper clippings in the papers really enabled me to flesh out her portrait — the way she expressed herself in writing, her love of family, her glamour and desirability in Washington society, the playful relationship she had with everyone in the White House, from F.D.R. down to her co-workers in the West Wing.”

The documents, which are being offered for sale, belong to LeHand’s great-nieces, Barbara Jacques and Jane Scarbrough, who had considered selling the collection for years, but realized their considerable potential value only after Ms. Smith began working on her book. Ms. Smith had been referred to them by the archivist at the Roosevelt Warm Springs rehabilitation institute near the president’s “Little White House” in Georgia.

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‘If you’d said to me a year ago, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could sell Bob Dylan’s archive?” the first thing I’d have said is, “Bob Dylan has an archive! Who knew?”’

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But that notebook, it turns out, is part of a trinity. Sitting in climate-controlled storage in a museum here are two more “Blood on the Tracks” notebooks — unknown to anyone outside of Mr. Dylan’s closest circle — whose pages of microscopic script reveal even more about how Mr. Dylan wrote some of his most famous songs.

There have long been rumors that Mr. Dylan had stashed away an extensive archive. It is now revealed that he did keep a private trove of his work, dating back to his earliest days as an artist, including lyrics, correspondence, recordings, films and photographs. That archive of 6,000 pieces has recently been acquired by a group of institutions in Oklahoma for an estimated $15 million to $20 million, and is set to become a resource for academic study.

In a preview of the Bob Dylan Archive by The New York Times, it is clear that the archives are deeper and more vast than even most Dylan experts could imagine, promising untold insight into the songwriter’s work.

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“Elements of Geometry by Euclid” includes pop-ups of the geometric solids. The mathematical texts have been blurred and instructional line drawings have been added.

“6 Empty Bookcases” is more architectural, but each of the bookcases presents interesting geometric 3 dimensional properties as it folds off the page.

What I find refreshing about Hofstra’s and O’hearn’s books is the clear unabashed connection to the mathematics. Whether addressing the societal implications of the use of averages, or creating their own interpretation on the historical Euclidean text, or using sophisticated calculations to build their geometric bookcases, the artists embrace mathematics.

Susan Happersett

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There are 22 posters in all, and they will soon be on view together for the first time as part of the exhibition “Women Take the Lead: From Elizabeth Cady Stanton to Eleanor Roosevelt, Suffrage to Human Rights,” opening on Jan. 14 at the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College on the Upper East Side.

Along with the posters are other documents from the decades-long women’s suffrage moment, like the prison records of the British activist Emmeline Pankhurst (played by Meryl Streep in the recent film “Suffragette”) and an early copy of Ms. Stanton’s “Declaration of Sentiments” at the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention on women’s rights.

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“The Downtown Decade: NYC 1975 – 1985” at Glenn Horowitz Rare (17 West 54th Street) until October 10. (You should have saved those Danceteria invites and Club 57 flyers.)

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