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Book Review: The River of Doubt

THE RIVER OF DOUBT:
Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey

by Candace Millard

Doubleday, 2005

When he lost the presidential election of 1912, Teddy Roosevelt retained what John Burroughs described as his “unbounded energy and vitality.” This led him to undertake a South American expedition that nearly killed him. He, his son Elliott, and fourteen others set out to explore a tributary of the Amazon River never previously visited by outsiders. In fact, three expedition members did die: one drowned in an episode that almost took the life of Roosevelt’s son Elliott, a second was murdered and a third, the murderer, was left in the jungle. Roosevelt himself barely made it: his leg injured in a fall, he developed abscesses and a high fever that incapacitated him for the last third of the journey. Candice Millard effectively places this absorbing story against the background of South American natural, social, and political history as well as the backgrounds of the remarkable expedition members. There have been few such challenging adventures since Benedict Arnold led the American attack on Quebec during the Revolutionary War. Backpackers and canoe trippers will especially enjoy reading this book.

River of Doubt should be of special interest to us here in Buffalo for we have the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site on Delaware Avenue.

Ms. Millard, a former writer and editor for National Geographic magazine, will be in Buffalo later this month to lecture on her book. Her talk on Monday, April 28 will start at 5:30pm at the Buffalo Seminary. A book signing will precede that at the Talking Leaves bookstore on Elmwood Avenue from 4:00 - 5:00 pm. For more information contact Janice Kuzan, assistant director of the Historic Site at 884-0095.

—gerry rising

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