Colonel Roosevelt

The final volume of Edmund Morris's three-part life of Theodore Roosevelt covers the ten years between his exit from the White House in 1909 and his death a decade later. It follows The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, which won a Pulitzer Prize, and Theodore Rex. Morris presents Roosevelt as the one great president whose stature grew after he left office. Over his life Roosevelt wrote some forty books, and he also founded a third political party, hunted lions, explored an uncharted river longer than the Rhine and survived an assassin's bullet. The account is documented down to small details. Published in 2010, it became a New York Times best seller.

Ryan Holiday counted it among the big biographies he read in 2014 that were worth every page.