#156 Theodore Roosevelt

What I learned from reading Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt ---- [0:20] He was scratched, bruised, and hungry, but gritty and determined as a bulldog.  [2:44] Not the least extraordinary part of the story is that during these same six days after catching the thieves, Theodore in odd moments read the whole of Anna Karenina.  [3:56] He impressed me and puzzled me. And when I went home I told my wife that I'd met the most peculiar, and at the same time, the most wonderful man I'd ever come to know. I could see that he was a man of brilliant ability and I could not understand why he was out there on the frontier.   [4:35]  Roosevelt has been a supporting character in a lot of the biographies that I've read for this podcast: #135 Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power #139 The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance#142 The Hour of Fate: Theodore Roosevelt, J. P. Morgan, and the Battle to Transform American Capitalism#145 The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst That piqued my interest and I knew I had to read a biography of him.  [7:53] The underlining theme would be the same as that of my earlier work—the creative effort, the testing, and the struggle, the elements of chance and inspiration involved in any great human achievements.  [9:22] Teddy Roosevelt had a life motto: Get Action!  [15:17] He is brimming full of mischief and has to be watched all the time.  [16:15] I felt great admiration for men who were fearless and I had a great desire to be like them.   [16:44] There runs a theme of the pleasure and pride in being the first to see or do something, an eagerness to set himself apart from the others, to distinguish himself, to get out ahead of them; or simply be alone, absorbed in private thoughts.  [18:15] He has learned at an early age what a precarious, unpredictable thing life is—and how very vulnerable he is.