Death on the River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Amazon Adventure

This gripping chronicle of a 1914 expedition that changed the map of Brazil highlights a post-presidential accomplishment of Teddy Roosevelt. Setting the scene, Seiple (Lincoln’s Spymaster) writes that, after arriving in Rio de Janeiro for a speaking tour, the “danger-loving, thrill-seeking” Roosevelt was recruited by the Brazilian government to lead, along with local explorer Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon, a mission to chart an unexplored and unmapped waterway in the Amazon jungle, known as the River of Doubt. Accompanied by his son Kermit and an entourage of Brazilian camaradas (canoeists and other laborers), Roosevelt embarked on what became as much a journey of survival as discovery. Incorporating quotations from the journals of Roosevelt and the expedition’s other principal members, Seiple illuminates the party’s life-threatening struggles with thundering rapids, punishing rain, disease, injuries, hostile native tribes, insubordination, dwindling provisions, and plummeting morale. Simultaneously, Seiple’s portrait of Roosevelt reveals his perseverance, good humor, selflessness, and compassion, despite potentially fatal malaria and an infected leg wound. Archival photos help draw readers into this death-defying drama. Ages 12–up. Agent: Jessica Regel, Foundry Literary + Media. (Jan.)