He was 25 when she died in his arms. It was Valentine's Day — the anniversary of their engagement. Young Theodore Roosevelt gave his newborn daughter to his sister and left Manhattan for the Badlands of the Dakotas, privately telling his friend Henry Cabot Lodge that he didn't know when, or if, he would ever return. =It was in the Badlands of what is now North Dakota in the badlands of his life that he began to heal. The raw beauty of the land and the strenuous life of the cowboy conspired to bring him back to life. It was the love of his childhood sweetheart that drew him back to Manhattan, back into the political arena, and hurled him into the center of the events that launched him as the youngest president in U.S. history and the man who set the stage for the American Century. Most people have a picture of the robust TR as president. Few know the story of his pain, struggle and triumph over multiple tragedies as a young man. We hope this piece of historical fiction does a little to remedy that situation.
