Just a point of information; another book about the same topic was
published in 1998, 258 pp., by Joseph Ornig called My Last Chance to be
a Boy. It is a very good account of TR's travels and travails in
exploring the Rio Paraguaya with a good deal of background about the
prepararation for the trip, etc.

Jim Corsaro

>>> [log in to unmask] 1/17/2006 10:44 AM >>>
Since I'm new to this List, I am not sure if the List posts info on
new
books related to New York State history & biography.
If so, I'd like to suggest a new book that I recently found at my
public
library.

"The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey" by Candice
Millard [Doubleday: 2005]

Following TR's defeat in the Election of 1912, he planned a speaking
trip
and a collecting expedition to South America. The expedition soon
jumped
from collecting animals for the American Museum of Natural History to
the
exploration of an unknown river - the River of Doubt - in Brazil.

From October 1913 to December 1913, TR toured & spoke in Brazil,
Uruguay,
Argentina, and Chile. It took him from December 1913 to February 1914
thru'
Paraguay and Brazil to reach the headwaters of the River of Doubt. The
expedition seemed to be mis-managed from the start and TR came quite
close
to dying during the expedition down the unknown river thru' the
Brazilian
jungle [February - April 1914].

The book is full of information, not only on Roosevelt & his family,
but on
Brazilian history, the ecology of the rain forest, the Indians of
Brazil,
and other topics. I found the book quite informative.


David Roberts
Hollywood, MD