Professor Mark West Publishes 20th Book

Professor West’s Theodore Roosevelt on Books and Reading brings together for the first time Roosevelt’s writings about his experiences as a reader, his scholarly essays about literature and literary history, and his exuberant reviews of some of the books that he especially liked. A sister volume to Mark I. West’s Theodore Roosevelt and His Library at Sagamore Hill, this new volume features Roosevelt’s own responses to many of the books in his personal library. All of the selections in this volume reflect Roosevelt’s passion for reading. These selections will resonate with anyone who shares Roosevelt’s love of books.

Gregory A Wynn, vice president of the Theodore Roosevelt Association, writes, “Mark West’s Theodore Roosevelt on Books and Reading illuminates an aspect of Theodore Roosevelt’s greatness that is too often overlooked. Dr. West’s editorial finesse allows Roosevelt to demonstrate his literary fluency and his bookish enthusiasms in his own words. This book and its companion, Theodore Roosevelt and His Library at Sagamore Hill, are valuable contributions to scholarship. They reinforce the importance of the adage that we are what we read. Roosevelt writes of books as being central to the soul of a person and makes me wishful for such erudition and well-read leaders today. A century after his death, Roosevelt’s energy and intellect leap out of the pages, and TR reminds us anew of the sheer joy of reading.”

For more information, see the Rowman & Littlefield Publishers’ website.