Theodore Rex

This follow-up to Morris's Pulitzer Prize-winning THE RISE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT focuses on the events of TR's presidency. Morris is far more interested in policy and public event than in the personal or psychological, a focus that is disappointing for students of family dynamics or fans of Alice Longworth, but this is otherwise an invigorating study. Jonathan Marosz is a merely adequate choice to render the life of this passionate, intellectual, voraciously curious, and self-improving character. Marosz's French pronunciation is incomprehensible, and there's enough language of diplomacy that it matters. He is sloppy; "a deux" is not the same as "adieu," and it's "Pierpont" Morgan, not "Pierpoint," for heaven's sake. Worst, he reads with so little energy, dropping his voice every five words in spite of punctuation or sense, that you constantly get Roosevelt saying things like, "I feel most emphatically that we should not turn into shingles. A tree which was old when the first Egyptian conqueror penetrated to the valley of the Euphrates ..." It's distressing to hear a fine book read by someone with no apparent interest in the material, though the good news is that it is undoubtedly a fine book. B.G. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine

Starred review from October 15, 2001
The second entry in Morris's projected three-volume life of Theodore Roosevelt focuses on the presidential years 1901 through early 1909. Impeccably researched and beautifully composed, Morris's book provides what is arguably the best consideration of Roosevelt's presidency ever penned. Making good use of TR's private and presidential papers—as well as the archives of such protégés as John Hay, William Howard Taft, Owen Wister and John Burroughs—Morris marshals a rich array of carefully chosen and beautifully rendered vignettes to create a dazzling portrait of the man (the youngest ever to hold the office of president). Morris proves the perfect guide through TR's eight breathless, fertile years in the White House: years during which the doting father and prolific author conserved millions of Western acres, swung his "big stick" at trusts and monopolies, advanced progressive agendas on race and labor relations, fostered a revolution in Panama (where he sought to build his canal), won the Nobel Peace Prize for mediating an end to the Russo-Japanese War and pushed through the Pure Food and Drug Act. John Burroughs once wrote that the hypercreative TR "was a many sided man, and every side was like an electric battery." In the end, Morris succeeds brilliantly at capturing all of TR's many energized sides, producing a book that is every bit as complex, engaging and invigorating as the vibrant president it depicts. Illus. (On-sale: Nov. 20)Forecast:Long-awaited, this volume comes out in the centennial of TR's rise to the presidency. Morris's gift for storytelling and his outstanding reputation from volume one (and perhaps his notoriety for the controversial Reagan bio
Dutch) should guarantee large sales.