Pulitzer Prize Biography Winner

Theodore Roosevelt: A Biography

by Henry F. Pringle

Summary

Pringle delivers a candid, often skeptical portrait of Theodore Roosevelt that broke from the worshipful tone of earlier accounts. He follows Roosevelt from his sickly boyhood through the Rough Riders, the presidency, and the bruising Bull Moose campaign, weighing the man's energy against his contradictions. The book's willingness to question its subject helped redefine how American political biography could be written.

Historical Context & Significance

Pringle later won a second Pulitzer in 1940 for his biography of William Howard Taft.