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


 Contents
 
 Title Page
 Copyright Notice
 Dedication
 Note to the Reader
 Frontispiece
 Part I
 
 Chapter One: Here Roams Theodore
 Chapter Two: Pretty Alice Lee
 Chapter Three: Slippers Slipped
 Chapter Four: The Clock Ticks
 Chapter Five: Poetry Comes Alive
 Chapter Six: The Insults of Shakespeare
 Chapter Seven: Toward Lofty Things
 Chapter Eight: The Island of Portly Hogs
 Chapter Nine: A Fellow Conspirator
 Chapter Ten: The Art of Chestnutting
 Chapter Eleven: Simple Endearments
 
 
 Part II
 
 Chapter Twelve: Here Roams Theodore
 Chapter Thirteen: A Hot Clean
 Chapter Fourteen: The Burning
 Chapter Fifteen: Something’s Cooking
 Chapter Sixteen: Life Lessons
 Chapter Seventeen: The Invitation
 Chapter Eighteen: A Feast for the Eyes
 Chapter Nineteen: Delectable Delights
 Chapter Twenty: An Offer to Bestow
 Chapter Twenty-one: A Response to Offer
 
 
 Part III
 
 Chapter Twenty-two: Here Roams Theodore
 Chapter Twenty-three: The Movement
 Chapter Twenty-four: A Diamond in the Snow
 Chapter Twenty-five: Flying
 Chapter Twenty-six: A Heart Swells
 Chapter Twenty-seven: Oatmeal Soup
 Chapter Twenty-eight: The Argument
 Chapter Twenty-nine: While We Live, Let Us Live
 Chapter Thirty: A Filling Lunch
 Chapter Thirty-one: Fair Harvard
 Chapter Thirty-two: The Man in the Arena
 Chapter Thirty-three: The Tintype Spree
 
 
 Part IV
 
 Chapter Thirty-four: Here Roams Theodore
 Chapter Thirty-five: The Débutante Ball
 Chapter Thirty-six: To and Fro
 Chapter Thirty-seven: The Power of Sherbet
 Chapter Thirty-eight: As Time Passes
 Chapter Thirty-nine: The Special Day
 Chapter Forty: A Summer’s Dream
 Chapter Forty-one: The Confession
 Chapter Forty-two: Passion’s Embrace
 Chapter Forty-three: Sweet Home
 Chapter Forty-four: The Departure
 Chapter Forty-five: The Clock Strikes
 Chapter Forty-six: Here Roams Theodore
 
 
 After Alice
 Acknowledgments
 Resources
 Further Reading
 Also by Mary Calvi
 About the Author
 Newsletter Sign-up
 Copyright
 
 
 
 Guide
 
 Cover
 Title Page
 Start of Content
 Dedication
 Contents
 Note to the Reader
 Part I
 Chapter One: Here Roams Theodore
 Acknowledgments
 Copyright
 
 
 
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 Begin Reading
 Table of Contents
 About the Author
 Copyright Page
 
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 To my father
 for always believing in me
 
 
 
 Note to the Reader
 
 I had thought the letters you’ll read in this book did not exist, at least not in their entirety. I remembered what one biographer wrote, that “all trace of any letters that passed between them [Theodore Roosevelt and Alice Lee] has vanished.” But here I was examining their writings to each other, albeit carefully; after all, they date back to the 1800s.
 As I transcribed the letters between a young Theodore Roosevelt and his first love, Alice Hathaway Lee, I was moved by their painful beauty, and realized everyone deserved to hear her voice, to hear his. Their story, I wanted to craft based on these letters, as well as the diary entries, witness accounts, newspaper articles, publications, and other sources related to Theodore Roosevelt, Alice Hathaway Lee, and those who influenced their world and bore witness to a turning point in our nation’s history. The novel would present readers with both written and spoken words from preserved documents, and also illustrate the changes underway in a defining era—the Gilded Age.
 After reading through the last of the letters, I decided it might be a good idea to take a photograph with them while seated at one of a number of long wooden tables inside Houghton Library at Harvard University where they are stored. As I did, I was taken aback by what was hanging on the wall behind me: a