Winner of the 1982 National Book Award for Biography, Mornings on Horseback is the brilliant biography of the young Theodore Roosevelt. Hailed as a masterpiece by Newsday, it also won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography. Now with a new introduction by the author, Mornings on Horseback is reprinted as a Simon & Schuster Classic Edition.

Mornings on Horseback is about the world of the young Theodore Roosevelt. It is the story of a remarkable little boy, seriously handicapped by recurrent and nearly fatal attacks of asthma, and his struggle to manhood: an amazing metamorphosis seen in the context of the very uncommon household (and rarefied social world) in which he was raised.

His father is the first Theodore Roosevelt, "Greatheart," a figure of unbounded energy, enormously attractive and selfless, a god in the eyes of his small, frail namesake. His mother, Mittie Bulloch Roosevelt, is a Southerner and celebrated beauty, but also considerably more, which the book makes clear as never before. There are sisters Anna and Corinne, brother Elliott (who becomes the father of Eleanor Roosevelt), and the lovely, tragic Alice Lee, Teddy Roosevelt's first love. And while such disparate figures as Abraham Lincoln, Mrs. John Jacob Astor, and Senator Roscoe Conkling play a part, it is this diverse and intensely human assemblage of Roosevelts, all brought to vivid life, which gives the book its remarkable power.

The book spans seventeen years -- from 1869 when little "Teedie" is ten, to 1886 when, as a hardened "real life cowboy," he returns from the West to pick up the pieces of a shattered life and begin anew, a grown man, whole in body and spirit. The story does for Teddy Roosevelt what Sunrise at Campobello did for FDR -- reveals the inner man through his battle against dreadful odds.

Like David McCullough's The Great Bridge, also set in New York, this is at once an enthralling story, with all the elements of a great novel, and a penetrating character study. It is brilliant social history and a work of important scholarship, which does away with several old myths and breaks entirely new ground. For the first time, for example, Roosevelt's asthma is examined closely, drawing on information gleaned from private Roosevelt family papers and in light of present-day knowledge of the disease and its psychosomatic aspects.

At heart it is a book about life intensely lived...about family love and family loyalty...about courtship and childbirth and death, fathers and sons...about winter on the Nile in the grand manner and Harvard College...about gutter politics in washrooms and the tumultuous Republican Convention of 1884...about grizzly bears, grief and courage, and "blessed" mornings on horseback at Oyster Bay or beneath the limitless skies of the Badlands. "Black care rarely sits behind a rider whose pace is fast enough," Roosevelt once wrote. It is the key to his life and to much that is so memorable in this magnificent book.

This was the first David McCullough book I ever read, a gift from a favorite aunt who knew and was fond of some descendents of TR's mother's family, the Bullochs. Though I was not yet a fan of non-fiction, this book changed my tastes. It's as readable as good fiction, with the added satisfaction of being a true story. David McCullough has a real gift for getting inside the lives of his subjects and making them human, and though he certainly chose a complex and interesting character in TR, this book is also largely about American social history and Roosevelt family history.

The physical challenges TR overcame and the personal losses he survived would have destroyed a lesser man, but by sheer strength of character he managed to transform himself into, well, TR. By his low-key recounting of the struggles and successes of this exceptional man, Mr. McCullough demonstrates the power of will and conveys the sheer exuberance of the man in this almost incredible story that just happens to be true.

Surely TR serves as a shining example of what it truly means to triumph over adversity, and what persistence and courage really mean. No whining here, and bully for him.

This book got me hooked on biographies, and Mr. McCullough's in particular. This is a good one to start with--it doesn't seem as scholarly as say, "John Adams" (not that that's a bad thing), and perhaps because TR's generation is closer to our own, it's very accessible and reader friendly. I particularly enjoyed the account of TR's childhood--the warmth of Mittie, his mother, and the details of their everyday lives--plush-lined, perhaps--but containing the kind of pain any contemporary reader can relate to.

For a wonderfully readable biography about a truly worthy subject of this master storyteller, look no further than "Mornings on Horseback." It would be a great introduction to history or biography for a young adult reader, as well as for jaded fiction readers looking for something with a little more meat.

This book given to my brother, a history buff, who did not like it. He raved about 1776 by the same author.

I NEVER RECIEVED THIS BOOK. It was returned to sender as undeliverable. The reason is the address was to my winter residence for which I have a mail transfer through the post office with mail going to my summer address and the post office would not transfer anything except fist class mail and I didn't know that when I placed the order. I will have to order it again after October first.

Overall, not bad with some entertainment and it got better in the second half. Won't read it again though..

I thought I knew much about Theodore Roosevelt before I read this book, but learned even more about him and find that he is an inspiration, the way he got over all the troubles that he had as a young child.
A very good book. Entertaining and informative.