Mornings on Horseback by David McCullough and
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
--both of them fascinating biographies of Theodore Roosevelt depicting different points in his life, also The River of Doubt by Candice Miller, which chronicled Teddy's (and a team of men, of course) trip down a then unnamed tributary of the Amazon River in 1914, five years after he left the presidency. I read the first on recommendation of a friend then searched out the others. I had NO IDEA what a bizarrely fascinating individual he was; there was so much more to Theodore Roosevelt than a myopic, jingoistic president bent on expansion of America's power. I had no idea that he was a severe asthmatic as a child or that he had a weak heart, which is probably why he died when he was only 60. He'd been warned against strenuous physical activity by a doctor when he was young but refused to live a sedentary life. His wife didn't want him to go down the Amazon (with their son no less) but he felt he had to do it. He was also a mad lefty hippie conservationist (also an avid hunter) and an author of many books.
I also read Edith Kermit Roosevelt: Portrait of a First Lady by Sylvia Morris. It chronicled the life of Theodore's wife, Edith, with whom he had 6 children. I had no idea that Theodore's oldest daughter, Alice--who was such a hellion that she constantly made the papers with her antics--was actually the child of his first wife. I'd had no idea that there was a first wife (who died from kidney disease 2 days after baby Alice was born). Theodore never spoke of his first wife again after the funeral. Never. He refused to talk about her to their daughter. In fact, he called Alice "Baby Lee" or "sister" because his first wife's name had been Alice Lee. That's how severe his denial was of his grief...he didn't speak the name "Alice" unless he absolutely had to do it. The only way he could function was to suppress his grief completely.
In fact, there's a surviving letter showing that Roosevelt would have given up custody of his daughter to his older sister, Anna. He left baby Alice with Anna for 2 years after her birth while he went out to the badlands to try his hand at cattle ranching. Edith had been a childhood friend of his with whom he reconnected when he travelled back to New York for a month after his first year out west. He married her a year and a half later after he returned to New York for good. It was Edith who insisted he take his daughter back from his sister. Not Theodore. He was perfectly content to leave little Alice with her aunt. His denial of his first wife would have been complete had his second wife not insisted the child come back into their home. Alice would have been raised by her paternal aunt and her surviving maternal grandparents had her stepmother not insisted the 3 year old girl come home to Sagamore Hill to live. Theodore and Edith were married until he died. Ironically enough, they were better suited for each other than Teddy and the first Alice had been, though he'd loved Alice dearly.
How's that for an interesting bit of psychology on Theodore?
It's worth the read.
I'll definitely make a note of APT for the new year, though! Ah, European history...