If a Poem Could Live and Breathe: A Novel of Teddy Roosevelt’s First Love

Broadcast journalist Calvi follows up Dear George, Dear Mary with another solid presidential love story, this time drawing on the letters from Theodore Roosevelt to Alice Lee, his first wife, who died shortly after childbirth. Alice first meets Theodore just before her 18th birthday, at her cousin’s estate in Chestnut Hill, Mass. Theodore, a student at Harvard, impresses Alice with his knowledge of various birds and their unique calls as well as his forward-thinking views about women’s rights. At his graduation, he presents his egalitarian views in a speech inspired by Alice. The two marry in October 1880, a union that is further solidified by the moving letters Theodore wrote to Alice while on a six-week pre-wedding excursion with his brother. Though Theodore and Alice enjoy a blissful period for a few years, Alice has a difficult pregnancy and dies after giving birth to their only child on Valentine’s Day in 1884. The authenticity of Theodore’s feelings for Alice is made palpable in the magnetic narrative, and the inclusion of his love letters to Alice, some published for the very first time, is a nice touch. Historical fiction fans will be pleased. (Feb.)