Edmund Morris

This biography by the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author recounts the last decade of Theodore Roosevelt's amazing life.

Thomas Alva Edison's invention of the first practical incandescent lamp 140 years ago so dazzled the world that it cast a shadow over his later achievements. In all, this near-deaf genius patented 1,093 inventions, not including those he left unlicensed for the benefit of medicine.Morris portrays the unknown Edison-- philosopher, futurist, chemist, botanist, wartime defense adviser, founder of nearly 250 companies-- while deconstructing the Edison...

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) was a genius so universal that his popularity, extraordinary even during his lifetime, has never ceased to grow. It now encircles the globe: Beethoven's most famous works are as beloved in Beijing as they are in Boston. Edmund Morris, the author of three bestselling presidential biographies and a lifelong devotee of Beethoven, brings the great composer to life as a man of astonishing complexity and overpowering intelligence....

"With the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, Theodore Roosevelt resigned his post as assistant secretary of the navy to recruit the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry. The legendary Rough Riders--an unlikely combination of cowboys, frontiersmen, Native Americans, African-Americans, and Ivy League alumni--trained in Texas before shipping off to Cuba. The regiment met their enemy in the tropical summer heat, fighting rain, mud, and malaria as well as the...