Historical fiction, American

Three titles undergo scrutiny in the “Book Review” section. William N. Tilchin admires Candice Millard’s The River of Doubt about the Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition of Brazil’s River of Doubt, and he provides a summary of its contents, noting that it would meet with Theodore Roosevelt’s approval as a combination of history and literature. Robert Wexelblatt expresses mixed feelings about Morton L. Kurland’s historical novel Theodore Roosevelt Rides Again, noting that the author takes care with historical facts, but that his portrait of Roosevelt is cartoonish and “the writing is uneven and uncertain.” Gregory A. Wynn finds that Mike Thompson’s The Travels and Tribulations of Theodore Roosevelt’s Cabin adds to the understanding of Roosevelt’s time in the Dakota Badlands with its many details about the cabin and the rancher who inhabited it.

Two photographs of Roosevelt during the River of Doubt expedition and one of the Maltese Cross cabin appear in the review section.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Perry D. Floyd reviews Gore Vidal’s historical novel Empire, and while he expresses frustration at Vidal’s “deceitful lapses” and struggle to maintain fidelity to the historical record, Floyd finds the portrait of Theodore Roosevelt drawn in the novel to be quite sympathetic. Floyd highlights some of the other historical figures that Vidal has written about, such as Abraham Lincoln, and he contends that Vidal as a novelist is often able to illuminate historical figures in ways that historians and biographers cannot.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1987

The “Book Notes” column features reviews of two historical novels. The Adventures of the Stalwart Companions pairs a young Theodore Roosevelt with Sherlock Holmes to solve a murder in Gilded Age New York City. Marvin R. Morrison outlines the plot of the novel in some detail and says that it “is good reading.” The Bad Lands is a western based on Roosevelt and the Marquis de Mores though neither is a character in the novel. Elizabeth E. Roosevelt provides a very brief review, says the book is not very good, and asks readers to instead read Hermann Hagedorn’s Roosevelt in the Bad Lands.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1979