Edmund Morris - Theodore Rex

PRAISE FOR
T HEODORE R EX

Take a deep breath and dive into Theodore Rex, Edmund Morriss 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 pastwhich looks like our futurewith 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 Morriss first installment , The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, which won the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award. MICHAEL LIND, The Washington Post Morriss 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 Adamss volumes on Jefferson and Madison. ERNEST R. MAY, The Times Literary Supplement By dint of its subjects 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 Morriss 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 Roosevelts 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 Roosevelts nearly seven and a half years of power. EDWARD J. RENEHAN, JR., The Wall Street Journal Roosevelt is a biographers 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 OHANLON, 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 biographersone 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 biographers dream. His was a life of actionpure act, in Henry Adamss 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 Presidentthe man is so fascinating that the Presidency seems almost marginal. Morris has to race to match Roosevelts pace, but at every turn the biographer shrewdly takes his protean subjects measure. The result is an inspiring reminder that greatness and politics arent always antithetical. MALCOLM JONES, Newsweek Morris does a masterful job. No self-respecting novelist would make up such a character. Roosevelt might wonder why he rates only three volumes from Morris. BOB MINZESHEIMER, USA Today Much of this book has the hurtling pace and alert eye of fiction. Theodore Rex lets Morris be Morris which is to say one of the most adroit biographers around. RICHARD LACAYO, Time The sheer loveliness of [Morriss] prose, his adept handling of scenes and emotions, his skill at building suspense and managing disclosures, all these talents are manifest in Theodore Rex. Morriss unusual skills are a gift. DANIEL AKST, New Jersey Star-Ledger Morris writes from inside, presenting everything in scenario fashion, with characters and action and dialogue, in energetic prose, and with little overt authorial presence. NICHOLAS LEMANN, The New Yorker What commends Morriss [book] is not only the sheer richness of TRs life but the sheer, old-fashioned richness of the writing. Here is wit. Here is irony. And here is the talent to get it all across. [Morris] has written a book so good that TR himself would have recommended it. RICHARD COHEN, The Washington Post His style is reader-friendly and piquant. This is Roosevelt as his often astonished contemporaries observed him. Its a shining portrait of a presciently modern political genius maneuvering in a gilded age of wealth, optimism, excess and American global ascension. JOHN CARMAN, San Francisco Chronicle Morris has roared back to print with a huge book on Roosevelts White House years. A big, beefy biography of an inexhaustible character. BRUCE CLAYTON, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Morris is above all a portraitistperhaps the best currently writing. His metaphors are often apt; at times they are brilliant. H. W. BRANDS, Boston Sunday Globe Magnificent This is a compulsively readable, beautifully measured and paced account. Probably no extended study has better captured Roosevelts dynamism, his childlike enthusiasms his determination to make the presidency the center of national life, his imperial view of his role, his yearning for American empire. MICHAEL SHERRY, Chicago Tribune Superb The new book is every bit as detailed and imaginatively written as its 1979 predecessor. [Roosevelts] very real intellectual and physical appetites were positively Falstaffian. What distinguishes Theodore Rex is, if anything, not the copious research (there are 180 pages of notes) but rather its deeply novelistic construction, the numerous writerly touches, and the acts of emotional sympathy. Add to this some smaller touches and you end up with a biography thats as good as fiction a narrative that is well suited in heft, temper, and tone to its vivid subject. DANIEL MENDELSOHN, New York Roosevelts titanic personality emerges vividly and with a good deal of nuance; the nation he led through a period of turbulent economic, social, and political change proves to have much in common with America at the turn of the twenty-first century. The narrative moves steadily forward, enriched but seldom slowed by detail. Morriss prose is swift and sure, with a good deal of bite. WENDY SMITH, Newsday A reader doesnt have to turn too many pages of this grand biography of Theodore Roosevelts presidential years before coming to the inescapable conclusion that TR was one of the most fascinating and singularly different presidents in American history. [Theodore Rex is] brilliantly researched and masterfully told. Without question, this is the definitive one-volume history of Roosevelts presidency. TOM POWERS, The Flint Journal (Michigan) A recent C-SPAN poll placed [TR] fourth among all Presidents, behind only Lincoln, Washington and FDR. Theodore Rex will only consolidate his standing. It is a huge story, told against the tumultuous backdrop of national and global change. BILL BELL, New York Daily News