Mornings on Horseback by McCullough, David - 1981

New York: Simon and Schuster, 1981. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Good. 445, [3] pages. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Endpaper genealogy charts. DJ has some wear, soiling, edge tears and chips. Some edge soiling. David Gaub McCullough (born July 7, 1933) is an American author, narrator, historian, and lecturer. He is a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian award. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, McCullough earned a degree in English literature from Yale University. His first book was The Johnstown Flood (1968); and he has since written nine more on such topics as Harry S. Truman, John Adams, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Wright brothers. McCullough has also narrated numerous documentaries, such as The Civil War by Ken Burns, as well as the 2003 film Seabiscuit; and he hosted American Experience for twelve years. McCullough's two Pulitzer Prize-winning books, Truman and John Adams, have been adapted by HBO into a TV film and a miniseries, respectively. Mornings on Horseback is a 1981 biography of the 26th President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt written by popular historian David McCullough, covering the early part of Roosevelt's life. The book won McCullough's second National Book Award and his first Los Angeles Times Prize for Biography. The story begins in New York in 1869 by introducing the family: father Theodore Roosevelt, Sr., mother Mittie Bulloch Roosevelt and their children Anna (called Bamie), Theodore, Elliott (who becomes the father of Eleanor Roosevelt) and Corinne (called Conie). McCullough then flashes back to the backgrounds of Theodore, Sr. and Mittie, followed by their courtship and marriage, then the stories of their children, ending with Theodore's engagement to Edith Carow. During his research for The Path Between the Seas, describing the history of the Panama Canal and Theodore Roosevelt's role in its construction, McCullough says "I was interested in knowing what was involved in the metamorphosis of this most conspicuous animate wonder." Discovering thousands of letters in the Theodore Roosevelt Collection at Harvard's Houghton Library between the members of the Roosevelt family, "I realized what a truly marvelous and very large subject I had." The wealth of correspondence allowed him to reveal the life of a well-to-do Victorian American family in depth heretofore unseen. He says "I've tried to see that individual, not just in the context of his family who were the closest to him and most important to him, but also to see the family in the context of a particular social class in which they were prominent." McCullough speaks of the value in knowing who raised the future President: "If there was one discovery or revelation that meant the most, it was coming to know Theodore Roosevelt, Sr., who is central to this book, as he was in the life of his small namesake. I think it is fair to say that one can not really know Theodore Roosevelt...without knowing the sort of man his father was. Indeed, if I could have one wish for you the reader, it would be that you come away from the book with a strong sense of what a great man Theodore Roosevelt, Sr. was" McCullough chose to end the story "when I thought he was formed as a person, when I felt I could say, when the reader could say, there he is."