Edith Kermit Roosevelt: Portrait of a First Lady

Edith Kermit Carow grew up in New York City in the same circles as did Theodore Roosevelt. But only after TR's first wife died at age twenty-two did the childhood friends forge one of the most successful romantic and political partnerships in American history. Sylvia Jukes Morris's access to previously unpublished letters and diaries brings to full life her portrait of the Roosevelts and their times. During her years as First Lady (1901-09), Edith Kermit Roosevelt dazzled social and political Washington as hostess, confidante, and mother of six, leading her husband to remark, "Mrs. Roosevelt comes a good deal nearer my ideal than I do myself."

"Marvelously full-blooded, engagingly written."
--Newsweek

"An endlessly engrossing book, at once of historical and human importance... Morris's indefatigably busy camera catches everything that is catchable. The result is a narrative that one will want to return to and mull over, conscious of the hundred and one details that might have been missed the first time around, and with a reader's freedom to speculate that Morris admirably denies herself."
--R.W.B. Lewis, The Washington Post

"Morris excels at putting Edith in her place in charge of the First Family at a heady time in American history."
--Newsweek

"A splendid biography... One reads on, intrigued by the character that emerges."
--Chicago Sun-Times

"This biography represents craftsmanship of the highest order."
--The Christian Science Monitor

"A story as fascinating and well-written as a novel."
--Worcester Telegram

"A superb life story enchantingly told."
--Richmond Times-Dispatch

"A warmly vivid account of a refined, intelligent, and gracious lady and a contribution to the history of an era."
--David H. Burton, St. Joseph's University