Morris on TR

Sargent's White House portrait of TR.

My current reading is The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, by Edmund Morris, published in 1979.  This is the first of three volumes Morris has written on the 26th President of the United State.  It won a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award for biography.  Rise also commended Morris to Ronald Reagan to serve as writer of his unconventional presidential biography, Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan, published in 1999.

Years ago I visited Mount Rushmore and wondered why Teddy Roosevelt ended up on the same mountainside with the likes of Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln.  Although I am still in the early pages of this biography, TR's achievements clearly warrant more attention than we give them at present.  This man was truly a force of nature.

Rise covers the years from Roosevelt's birth to his election as President.  Theodore Rex, published in 2001, records the presidential years of 1901-09.  Published in 2010, Colonel Roosevelt follows TR through the post-presidential years until his death in 1919.

Born and educated in South Africa, Morris first worked as an advertising writer.  In time he moved to England, married, and then emigrated to the United States.  In an age when "good writing" consists of tiny, near-illiterate tweets and Facebook preens, Morris' handling of the English language is uncommonly graceful.  This biography is not only informative and engaging, but a delight to just read! •••