`Mornings on Horseback` is the brilliant biography of
the young Theodore Roosevelt. Hailed as `a masterpiece`
(John A. Gable, `Newsday` ), it is the winner of the
`Los Angeles Times` 1981 Book Prize for Biography and
the National Book Award for Biography. Written by David
McCullough, the author of `Truman,` this is the story of
a remarkable little boy, seriously handicapped by
recurrent and almost fatal asthma attacks, and his
struggle to manhood: an amazing metamorphosis seen in
the context of the very uncommon household in which he
was raised.The father is the first Theodore Roosevelt, a
figure of unbounded energy, enormously attractive and
selfless, a god in the eyes of his small, frail
namesake. The mother, Mittie Bulloch Roosevelt, is a
Southerner and a celebrated beauty, but also
considerably more, which the book makes clear as never
before. There are sisters Anna and Corinne, brother
Elliott (who becomes the father of Eleanor Roosevelt),
and the lovely, tragic Alice Lee, TR's first love. All
are brought to life to make `a beautifully told story,
filled with fresh detail, ` wrote `The New York Times
Book Review` A book to be read on many levels, it is at
once an enthralling story, a brilliant social history
and a work of important scholarship which does away with
several old myths and breaks entirely new ground. It is
a book about life intensely lived, about family love and
loyalty, about grief and courage, about `blessed`
mornings on horseback beneath the wide blue skies of the
Badlands. |
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