Man in the Arena

What do you get when you combine an obsessive reader, a""wild and wooly"" adventurer and an ironclad political will with a reformist sensibility? Teddy Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States (who was also a naturalist, a biographer, a hunter and a Nobel Prize winner--among other things). This collection of his writings gives credence to Henry Adams's assertion that Roosevelt was""pure Act"": there was, it seems, no subject (or foe) he was afraid to tackle. Editor Thomsen breaks down Roosevelt's impressive and wide-ranging literary output into four categories (Historian, Memoirist, Adventurer and Man of Letters), within which the reader is treated to a wide assortment of Roosevelt's historical analysis, travel writing and criticism. Although well known as a travel and adventure writer, Roosevelt's literary side has received less attention; his essays on Dante, contemporary poetry and the popular literature of his day show a man of finely tuned sensibilities. If there's a fault to this collection, it lies in the fact that no clear theme determines inclusion, and as such the book lacks a sense of coherency. While readers will appreciate the virtuosic variety of Roosevelt's writing, they will find themselves a bit unsure as to what it is that separates these essays from others not selected, as Thomsen never shares his reasoning with the reader.