Theodore Roosevelt

As a boy, Theodore Roosevelt prayed for the Union Cause just to needle his Southern-born mother. She laughed—but warned him not to repeat the joke at prayer.

Born in New York City in 1858 to a prosperous family divided by the Civil War, Roosevelt grew up among Northern and Southern loyalties, affectionate kin, and parents who made discipline part of daily life. William Roscoe Thayer knew him for more than forty years, and sets out to portray the man rather than polish him into a monument. The child at the center of these pages is curious, funny, and often breathless with asthma; the frailty of his body will test a spirit already hungry for books, animals, and adventure. How did this young Roosevelt turn privilege and physical hardship into a life of public purpose?

With centuries of literature, it's inevitable that some will fall through the cracks. We hunt down public domain works and restore them so they're not lost to the world.

Who are we? We're Cairn Press. Our background is in design, publishing, typography, and technology. These skills fuel our mission to create the highest quality Public Domain eBooks available online, at an affordable price. We give them the treatment they deserve; our proprietary process restores books for a better overall user experience in design, readability, and e-reader compatibility.