Acerbic – sour, harsh, severe
“The acerbic Henry Adams described [Roosevelt] as pure act, something like a medieval and indescribable force.”
Lion in the White House, Aida D. Donald
Tag: Aida D. Donald (Page 3 of 4)
Nascent – coming into being; being born; beginning to form, start, grow, or develop
“Though a historian in the making and a still-nascent politician, Roosevelt intuited that a politician must lead the people with an original set of principles, not just mirror those cobbled to the lowest common denominator.”
lion in the White house, Aida D. Donald
Simpatico – congenital or like-minded; likeable
“When he was only twenty-eight years old, Roosevelt published his life of Benton, who served fifty years in Washington… Roosevelt thought the book evolved mainly from his “inner consciousness,” so simpatico was he with so many of Benton’s political trials.”
Lion in the White House, Aida D. Donald
“[Roosevelt] wrote to his sister Coni at the time that Edith “was sweet in many different things … I don’t think even I had known how wonderfully good and unselfish she was; she is naturally reserved and finds it especially hard to express her feelings on paper.” In later years he wrote that Edith had made the “real happiness” in his life.”
Lion in the White House, Aida D. Donald
After only a few short years of marriage, Roosevelt’s first wife, Alice, died of kidney disease. She had just given birth to their first baby, Alice Lee, who was named for her mother. A year later, Roosevelt wrote this tribute to his dead wife:
“I … loved her as soon as I saw her sweet, fair young face … We spent three years of happiness such as rarely comes to a man or woman … Fair, pure, and joyous as a maiden; loving, tender, and happy as a young wife; when she had just become a mother, when her life seemed to be but just begun, and when the years seemed so bright before her – then by a strange and terrible fate, death came to her. And when my heart’s dearest died, the light went from my life forever.”
Theodore Roosevelt, as quoted in Lion in the White house, Aida D. Donald
“For him the bedrock of politics was morality, and business practices that bilked citizens were immoral. Looking back at those times in his autobiography, Roosevelt wrote that ‘honesty … and decency … and administrative efficiency are the prime requisites for a legislator.'”
Lion in the White House, Aida D. Donald
“In getting out the vote, Roosevelt was a human steam engine in a pince-nez, and he constantly stressed his distance from party bosses and corrupt interests.”
Lion in the White House, Aida D. Donald
Terrapin – any of several species of North American fresh-water or tidewater turtles characterized by a horny beak, a shield covered with epidermic plates, and partly webbed feet
“[Roosevelt] weighed eight and a half pounds and began life as a hearty baby, bright and hyperactive. His mother remarked that he looked like a terrapin, but he was soon declared a beautiful child, blond and blue-eyed.”
Lion in the White House, Aida D. Donald
Ameliorate – to grow better or less severe
“That private charity could only ameliorate conditions would be revealed to [Theodore Roosevelt Sr’s] son a generation later.”
Lion in the White House, Aida D. Donald
Ebullient – overflowing with enthusiasm, high spirits, etc; showing much exuberance or exhilaration
“[Roosevelt’s] ebullient and joyful persona entranced voters.”
from the introduction to Lion in the White House, Aida D. Donald
“The colonel [Roosevelt] was probably the best-known politician in the country, having been a military hero and in public life since the age of twenty-three. His ebullient personality, varied talents, war record, and reputation as a reformer – although a not wholly successful one – in an age of acute conservatism made him a popular figure.”
Lion in the White House, Aida D. Donald