The Loves of Theodore Roosevelt

December 1, 2023

O'Keefe, CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation, writes a biography of Roosevelt that explores the key roles of the women in his life. His first wife steered him to politics; his sisters shaped both his policies and his reputation; and his second wife, Edith, secured his legacy. Prepub Alert.

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March 4, 2024
The women in Theodore Roosevelt’s life strongly influenced his political career, historian O’Keefe argues in his elegant debut study. Roosevelt’s mother, sisters, and first wife Alice all had a guiding hand in his early political ambitions, according to O’Keefe; moreover, the 1884 deaths (on nearly the same day) of Alice and his mother were such a blow that he left politics altogether, spending the next 15 months on his cattle ranches in the Dakota territory. An unexpected 1885 run-in with his childhood sweetheart Edith drew him back east, and his involvement with the Republican Party renewed, in O’Keefe’s telling, thanks to prompting from Edith, who as his wife went on to steer Roosevelt through his rapid ascent to the White House. Calling Edith “the first modern first lady,” O’Keefe contends that she defined the role with her careful management of her husband’s career and, after his death, his legacy. O’Keefe’s frequent quotations from diaries and letters provide a charmingly intimate view of his subjects. (Describing how Roosevelt addresses Alice in correspondence, he writes: “ ‘Pretty,’ ‘sweet,’ ‘baby’—which became ‘baby wife’ after the couple wed—alternate with ‘queen,’ ‘purest queen,’ ‘my pure flower,’ ‘my pearl,’ and ‘my sweet, pretty queen.’ ”) Roosevelt admirers and readers interested in women’s exercise of political power will enjoy this one.

March 1, 2024
Behind every great man, there is a greater woman--in Theodore Roosevelt's case, five women. O'Keefe, the CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation, offers illuminating portraits of the women--Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, Anna Roosevelt Cowles, Corinne Roosevelt Robinson, Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt, and Alice Hathaway Lee--who helped mold one of the most significant political figures of the 20th century. The author's exhaustive research is evident, and his prose brings vitality and nuance to his subjects. Relying on a treasure trove of family letters and other archival documents, O'Keefe succeeds in proving his thesis about the Roosevelt women's centrality in shaping the bombastic president, but the execution is uneven. Some speculation is required to flesh out the motives and desires of Martha, the Roosevelt matriarch, and Alice, Roosevelt's first wife. Tragically, Alice's presence in her husband's life was brief (she died at age 22), and what little is known of her thoughts comes from a cache of letters preserved by her daughter. Given that most of Alice's correspondence was deliberately destroyed following her death, the author is forced to rely on other scholars' musings about a variety of topics, including Alice's purported influence on Roosevelt's Harvard thesis on women's suffrage and her rationale for accepting his marriage proposal. O'Keefe finds better footing when chronicling the life of Edith, Roosevelt's childhood friend and second wife, and Anna and Corinne, his two sisters, for whom there is a lifetime of correspondence. The author amply demonstrates how Anna repeatedly picked up the pieces of her brother's life when tragedy struck; how Corinne was his political sounding board; and how Edith created the modern First Ladyship while curating public knowledge about her marriage and her husband's legacy. For fans of presidential history, a fascinating celebration of women who helped make an iconic president.

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