Non-Required Reading: Mornings on Horseback

Facing a long plane ride later this summer, or need something to keep you occupied before summer classes start? Some of us here thought we'd share recommendations for some recent reads and perennial favorites. Today, Associate Director Jack Ray makes a recommendation.

Mornings on Horseback
by David McCullough

David McCullough is a writer who puts the "story" in "history." His works are exhaustively researched and scrupulously documented in endnotes, but are as absorbing and eloquent as good novels. Right now I'm reading "Mornings on Horseback" (1981), the story of Theodore Roosevelt's youth and early career. The entire Roosevelt family and their nineteenth-century New York milieu come to life in this vivid account. Struggling from childhood with debilitating attacks of asthma, young TR was nevertheless inspired by his father to achieve greatness, and after graduating from Harvard he embarked upon a tumultuous career in New York State politics. It's a great read, like all of McCullough's works.

Get it at our library, or from the Enoch Pratt Free Library or your public library at home, wherever that may be.