Anyone writing about Teddy Roosevelt starts with an almost unfair advantage, as TR was an outsized individual whose life included varied accomplishments, each of which might be someone else's entire life story.

He restored himself to health from severe childhood frailty and become a professional-level athlete as it was conceived in his time. He started, ran, and lost a major cattle ranch, cow-punching alongside his employees. He adventures included treks in the Black Hills of South Dakota, across Africa, and down the River of Doubt in South America. He served as Under Secretary of the Navy and prepared for the War with Spain without the approval of his superiors. He trained and lead the Rough Riders up San Juan Hill in Cuba, making himself famous. President of the NY Police Commission; Governor of NY; Vice President; President due to assassination of James Garfield; elected President. And on and on...

I'm sure it was a challenge to get all of that, plus TR's outsize personality, friendships and rivalries, into the limitation of this series.

However, I have to say that Auchincloss usually writes much better than this. One chapter was simply a series of quotations from TR, with brief introductions for context. Other chapters were introduced as set pieces on some particular topic, such as TR's re-election, his run as a Bull Moose candidate, and his legacy as an environmentalist (as it was conceived at the time). This created a sense of a visible outline, and made the book seem like a long freshman comp essay and not a book by one of our prominent writers of fiction and non-fiction. Auchincloss was phoning it in.

However, if you only have a couple of hours and want to get a sense of the person and life of TR, this is not a bad choice. Auchincloss does quote liberally from TR and his associates and rivals, providing an excellent brief introduction. If you have more time, and want to really understand the topic, read Edmund Morris's three-volume biography. ( )