Roosevelt the Explorer

T.R.'s Amazing Adventures as a Naturalist, Conservationist, and Explorer

H. Paul Jeffers

No American president has been more enthusiastic in appreciating the wilderness and in conserving our nation’s natural treasures than Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919). And no other president wrote more about nature and his explorations of it than T. R., in scattered books, such as African Wilderness, and in his countless letters, including those collected in The Selected Letters of Theodore Roosevelt). Roosevelt the Explorer, by historian and Roosevelt biographer H. Paul Jeffers, is the only book to offer a comprehensive, lifelong chronicle of the consummate adventurer’s exploits and expeditions, which compelled him to traverse some of our planet’s most difficult terrains.

Within these lively pages, Roosevelt collects more than a hundred bird specimens in Egypt at age fourteen; hunts grizzlies and other game in the wilds of the Dakota territory; founds the Boon and Crockett Club, the nation’s first conservation group; and inspires the first Teddy Bear. Jeffers describes T. R.’s efforts as president, against fierce opposition, to establish an unprecedented system of national parks and to ensure the safety of America’s vast federal forests and wetlands from rampant development.

In the words of Roosevelt himself, the adventures unfold T. R.’s 1909–1910, eleven-month, Smithsonian-inspired safari across Africa, from Mombasa on the Indian Ocean to Khartoum in Egypt, which followed his two terms as president; and his 1913–1914 danger-drenched expedition to map South America’s 950-mile River of Doubt (a previously unexplored tributary to the Amazon River later renamed Rio Roosevelt in his honor). During the trip, one man drowned, another was murdered, and the culprit went insane, fleeing into the jungle. Roosevelt was lucky to escape alive, nearly drowning and plagued by jungle fever, dysentery, an ulcerated leg, blood poisoning, and malaria.

Illustrated with rare cartoons and photos, and filled with hairbreadth escapes, exotic animals and locales, and unparalleled excitement, Roosevelt the Explorer brings to life T. R.’s thrilling and often controversial exploits as no other book has done since the twenty-sixth president took his pen in hand over eighty years ago.

Taylor Trade Publishing

Pages: 312 • Trim: 6½ x 9¼

978-0-87833-290-8 • Hardback • November 2002 • $24.95 • (£18.99)

978-1-58979-941-7 • Paperback • February 2014 • $18.95 • (£14.99)

978-1-4617-3437-6 • eBook • November 2002 • $9.99 • (£7.99)

Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Presidents & Heads of State, History / United States / General

Roosevelt the Explorer

T.R.'s Amazing Adventures as a Naturalist, Conservationist, and Explorer

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

No American president has been more enthusiastic in appreciating the wilderness and in conserving our nation’s natural treasures than Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919). And no other president wrote more about nature and his explorations of it than T. R., in scattered books, such as African Wilderness, and in his countless letters, including those collected in The Selected Letters of Theodore Roosevelt). Roosevelt the Explorer, by historian and Roosevelt biographer H. Paul Jeffers, is the only book to offer a comprehensive, lifelong chronicle of the consummate adventurer’s exploits and expeditions, which compelled him to traverse some of our planet’s most difficult terrains.

Within these lively pages, Roosevelt collects more than a hundred bird specimens in Egypt at age fourteen; hunts grizzlies and other game in the wilds of the Dakota territory; founds the Boon and Crockett Club, the nation’s first conservation group; and inspires the first Teddy Bear. Jeffers describes T. R.’s efforts as president, against fierce opposition, to establish an unprecedented system of national parks and to ensure the safety of America’s vast federal forests and wetlands from rampant development.

In the words of Roosevelt himself, the adventures unfold T. R.’s 1909–1910, eleven-month, Smithsonian-inspired safari across Africa, from Mombasa on the Indian Ocean to Khartoum in Egypt, which followed his two terms as president; and his 1913–1914 danger-drenched expedition to map South America’s 950-mile River of Doubt (a previously unexplored tributary to the Amazon River later renamed Rio Roosevelt in his honor). During the trip, one man drowned, another was murdered, and the culprit went insane, fleeing into the jungle. Roosevelt was lucky to escape alive, nearly drowning and plagued by jungle fever, dysentery, an ulcerated leg, blood poisoning, and malaria.

Illustrated with rare cartoons and photos, and filled with hairbreadth escapes, exotic animals and locales, and unparalleled excitement, Roosevelt the Explorer brings to life T. R.’s thrilling and often controversial exploits as no other book has done since the twenty-sixth president took his pen in hand over eighty years ago.

Details

Taylor Trade Publishing

Pages: 312 • Trim: 6½ x 9¼

978-0-87833-290-8 • Hardback • November 2002 • $24.95 • (£18.99)

978-1-58979-941-7 • Paperback • February 2014 • $18.95 • (£14.99)

978-1-4617-3437-6 • eBook • November 2002 • $9.99 • (£7.99)

Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Presidents & Heads of State, History / United States / General

Author

H. Paul Jeffers was the author of more than fifty books, including Colonel Roosevelt, Freemasons, and Dark Mysteries of the Vatican. He appeared on C-SPAN, Fox News, and The History Channel. He died in 2009.

Table of Contents

Part One: Enough to Make It Exciting
Chapter 1: Curious Teedie
Chapter 2: Back-East Dude
Chapter 3: Danny, Davy, and Teddy
Chapter 4: Strong as a Bull Moose
Part Two: For the Generations to Come
Chapter 5: To Learn to Swim, You Must Get into the Water
Chapter 6: Former Stamping Ground
Chapter 7: A Bear Named Teddy
Part Three: Hurrah for Africa
Chapter 8: “Health to the Lions!”
Chapter 9: The Man on the Cowcatcher
Chapter 10: The Lions of the Kapiti
Chapter 11: I Am Not a Rhinoceros Mind-Reader
Chapter 12: Land of the Masai
Chapter 13: Crossing the Thirst
Chapter 14: With Rifle and Camera
Chapter 15: Most Interesting of All the animals
Chapter 16: Tales by Poe on the Upper Nile
Part Four: To Be a Boy Again
Chapter 17: Reunion at Khartoum
Chapter 18: Merely Deferred
Chapter 19: A Difficult Trip Ahead
Chapter 20: “I’m bully!”
Chapter 21: All Well and Cheerful
Chapter 22: The Oxford Book of French Verse
Chapter 23: A River of Real Importance
Chapter 24: Murder in the Jungle
Chapter 25: A Wedding in Spain

Reviews

Most people think of Thomas Jefferson as the quintessential Renaissance president, while Theodore Roosevelt is remembered as a trust-busting empire builder. But, as H. Paul Jeffers shows, Roosevelt was a highly developed natural scientist, explorer, and the first real environmental president. As an avid outdoorsman, hunter, and associate member of Roosevelt’s own Boone and Crockett Club, I read Jeffers’ text with a feeling that I was at T.R.’s side.

— Charles M. Robinson III, author of The Men Who Wear the Star: The Story of the Texas Rangers and A Good Year to Die: The Story of the Great Sioux War

Theodore Roosevelt loved both nature and adventure. Whether ranching in the Dakotas, pursuing big game in Africa, or exploring South American rivers, T.R. lived the strenuous life other dreamed of leading. Now H. Paul Jeffers brings that story to life in a vivid, fast-paced narrative that at times is as breathtaking as the man himself.

— Brooks D. Simpson, Arizona State University, author of Ulysses S. Grant: Triumph over Adversity

A fascinating, affectionate biography of Roosevelt the outdoorsman, hunter, adventurer, nature-lover, and westerner. Filled with striking quotations and evocative details.

— Edward E. Leslie, author of Desperate Journeys, Abandoned Souls: True Stories of Castaways and Other Survivors

[A] good introduction to readers unfamiliar with Roosevelt’s writings.
— Gateway: The Magazine of the Missouri History Museum