MORNINGS ON HORSEBACK

How did it happen, David McCullough asks. How could the scrawny, asthmatic kid born to New York blue bloods transform himself into the boxing, rough-riding politician and Dakota rancher who became America's twenty-sixth president, Theodore Roosevelt? With his easy, graceful eloquence, Nelson Runger narrates McCullough's answer. The chemistry is simple: It's all about family, character, and a love of place. It begins with a father and mother deeply attached to each other and their children. Family is always first. Then come summers on the Nile, Harvard, and the Dakota Badlands. Finally, the glue: a strong heart and indomitable spirit. Runger intuitively recognizes McCullough's great purpose: to tell a quiet story about the small things in life that converge to make a man great. P.E.F. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/ SEP 07]