Dore Schary's play Sunrise at Campobello (1958) is the moving drama of FDR's three-year struggle to overcome the crippling effects of polio and to reenter the political arena as a viable candidate.

The play opens on August 10, 1921, in the Roosevelt summer home at Campobello, New Brunswick, Canada. After a strenuous day sailing and swimming with his children, FDR feels a sudden pain. When we next see him, he is being carried out to an ambulance. The two scenes of Act 2 take place in 1922 and 1923. FDR, confined to a wheelchair, resolves to make a mark in the world, despite his permanently crippled legs, over the objection of his formidable mother, Sara, but with the encouragement of his wife, Eleanor, and his devoted aide, Louis Howe. The third act takes place in 1924. At the Democratic Convention, FDR prepares to give the nominating speech for Al Smith, the speech that marked his return to political life. As the curtain comes down, FDR, the braces on his legs buried beneath his trousers, moves to the platform.

Sunrise at Campobello does not set out to be a major play probing the depths of its characters. Its ambition is modest: to give an account of a man overcoming an ordeal and in the process developing the strength of character that played a key role in his extraordinary success as a world leader. In this it succeeds. It is a poignant and often humorous drama that pays its subject the tribute that is his due. In 1960, the play was made into a successful film, directed by Vincent Donehue.

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