A fresh and perceptive analysis of Roosevelt’s contributions to literature.

This is a very clever book. . . . With great skill, the authors have succeeded in constructing something close to an indirect, or inadvertent, autobiography from a wide array of literary texts that were written as nothing of the sort.

Mr. Bailey and Ms. Joslin have done extensive work in reconstructing Roosevelt’s writing career, especially his correspondence with his publishers and booksellers, and give a thorough account of the man as a writer.

A book full of original insight, Theodore Roosevelt: A Literary Life brings us closer than ever before to understanding how and why Theodore Roosevelt became a gifted lifelong writer. The authors appreciate Roosevelt’s descriptive, action-packed prose and his wide-ranging scientific and historical expertise as well as his love of nature. Reticent in autobiography, expansive but deceptive in recounting his own nearly fatal Brazilian explorations, and inspiring as he pounded out his New Nationalism program, Roosevelt was a writer like no other. And this marvelous book illuminates his range and value.

Theodore Roosevelt began his literary life as a mere toddler, devouring books on nature and adventure. From these beginnings, he developed a writing style that combined a naturalist’s attention to detail with ample pinches of what he called the ‘salt’ of of adventure. Roosevelt’s many books are like museum specimens-time capsules that accurately and engagingly capture the spirit of days long gone. As our expert guides, Bailey and Joslin are the latest in a new generation of Roosevelt scholars writing through the lens of their own expertise. Their book is rich with insight, well-paced, and a pleasure to read.