Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt

By David McCullough

Categories: Biographies & Memoirs

David McCullough's 1981 book recreates the childhood and youth of Theodore Roosevelt and the remarkable family that raised him in New York. McCullough portrays his father, the philanthropist Theodore Sr., and his Southern mother, Mittie, and follows the sickly, asthmatic boy as he strengthens himself through exercise and study. The narrative carries Roosevelt through Harvard, his first marriage, the same-day deaths of his mother and wife in 1884, and his time as a rancher in the Dakota Badlands.

Recommended by 1 person

• Ryan Holiday: “You have to read a lot of books to write a book. Here's a chunk what went into Wisdom Takes Work.”