Author Eric Burns on His New Book on Theodore Roosevelt

Local author Eric Burns will discuss his new book The Golden Lad: The Haunting Story of Quentin and Theodore Roosevelton Thursday, February 25, at 7 pm in the Westport Library’s McManus Room. Books will be available for purchase at the program, which is free and open to the public.

More than a century has passed since Theodore Roosevelt was in the White House, but he continues to fascinate. He became a war hero, reformed the New York Police Department, busted the largest railroad and oil trusts, passed the Pure Food and Drug Act, created national parks and forests, won the Nobel Peace Prize and built the Panama Canal—to name just a few.

Yet it was the cause he championed the hardest—America's entry in to World War I—that would ultimately cause his downfall. His youngest son, Quentin, would die in an air fight. How does looking at Theodore's relationship with his son, and understanding him as a father, tell us something new about this larger-than-life-man? 

Burns is a former correspondent for NBC News and the Today Show. For ten years he was the host of the top-rated Fox News Watch, and he won an Emmy for media criticism. He is the author of 1920: The Year that Made the Decade Roar, Infamous Scribblers, The Spirits of America and The Smoke of the Gods. The latter two were named “Best of the Best” by the American Library Association.

For further information, phone 203-291-4800, or check westportlibrary.org.