Theodore Rex - Edmund Morris [0]
THEODORE REX
“Take a deep breath and dive into Theodore Rex, Edmund Morris’s sequel to his 1979 masterpiece, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt.… He writes with a breezy verve that makes the pages fly, and that perfectly suits his subject.… A combination of diffidence and enthusiasm allows him to write of our past—which looks like our future—with energy and clarity.”
—RICHARD BROOKHISER, The New York Times Book Review
“In Edmund Morris, a great president has found a great biographer. This … is every bit as much a masterpiece of biographical writing as Morris’s first installment, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, which won the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award.”
—MICHAEL LIND, The Washington Post
“Morris’s narrative account of Roosevelt as President is not likely to be bettered by any scholar at any time in the foreseeable future. As a literary work on Theodore Roosevelt, it is unlikely ever to be surpassed. It is one of the great histories of the American presidency, worthy of being on a shelf alongside Henry Adams’s volumes on Jefferson and Madison.”
—ERNEST R. MAY, The Times Literary Supplement
“By dint of its subject’s wildly captivating personality, Theodore Rex is able to combine the sweep of history and the complexities of statesmanship with the pervasive sense that you, the reader, are there.”
—JANET MASLIN, The New York Times
“This eagerly awaited second volume of Edmund Morris’s biography of Theodore Roosevelt could not have been better timed. [It is] just as scholarly and readable as the first volume.… Because of its theme and because of the scale of Roosevelt’s own actions, it is a book not only for the United States but for the world.”
—ASA BRIGGS, The Washington Times
“[The Rise of Theodore Rex] achieved a reputation as a modern classic, painstakingly researched, compellingly written, the winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award.… Theodore Rex is a worthy successor.… Once again, the scholarship is painstaking, the choices made amid an overwhelming amount of ultra-rich subject matter are wise.… The scenes and anecdotes are so fascinating the book is compelling.… Morris is an exciting teacher of U.S. history.”
—STEVE WEINBERG, The Denver Post
“Displaying a rich collection of vivid anecdotes, Mr. Morris provides a brilliant account of Theodore Roosevelt’s nearly seven and a half years of power.”
—EDWARD J. RENEHAN, JR., The Wall Street Journal
“Roosevelt is a biographer’s dream, an epic character not out of place in an adventure novel. Edmund Morris captures perfectly the frenetic atmosphere that surrounded a President of boundless energy, imagination, and ambition.… Theodore Rex is a massive achievement and hugely entertaining.”
—MICHAEL O’HANLON, The Christian Science Monitor
“There have been many splendid books about Roosevelt, but this surpasses them.… [TR] would have liked the way Edmund Morris has conjured him in this arresting study of a man at the peak of his powers. Theodore Roosevelt is back as the most rambunctious ghost stomping in the attic of our national memory.”
—TED WIDMER, The New York Observer
“No president before him acted with such zest, and none has since. Small wonder that Mark Twain called Roosevelt ‘the most popular human being that has ever existed in the United States.’ … Morris is that happiest of biographers—one writing with affection about a colorful character who left his bootprints all over history.… The reader finds himself holding not so much a book as a whirlwind of energy.”
—HARRY LEVINS, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“Roosevelt is a biographer’s dream.… His was a life of action—‘pure act,’ in Henry Adams’s phrase. Action produces narrative, and narrative requires scene-setting, and Morris has an uncommon talent for both. He is splendid when telling a story and describing the scenery against which it unfolds.”
—RUSSELL BAKER, The New York Review of Books
“It is easy to forget that you are reading about a former President—the man is so fascinating that the Presidency seems almost marginal.… Morris has to race to match Roosevelt