Revisiting the Roosevelts

I’m still feeling a pleasant information hangover after watching all 14 hours of Ken Burns’ latest documentary film, The Roosevelts: An Intimate History, which was broadcast on PBS-TV over the last week. Although some other viewers might have found that seven-day immersion in America’s political past rather daunting, I have to tell you: I could happily spend every day of every week learning more about human history, and probably never get my fill.

Should you crave a bit more time in the company of Theodore Roosevelt--if only through the pages of fiction--you might want to check back on a piece I wrote for Kirkus Reviews about the 26th president’s participation in recent mystery and thriller novels. Previously, in a wrap-up of fictional works featuring John F. Kennedy, I mentioned two that place FDR in a supporting role. Beginning in the 1980s (and with the writing support of William Harrington), the 32nd president’s son Elliott produced a most entertaining series of mysteries in which his mother, the highly capable Eleanor, interrupts her duties as first lady in order to investigate misdeeds of one sort or another. And click here to revisit a post I wrote for The Rap Sheet about a 1936 film based on a mystery-story concept by FDR.

Those three real-life Roosevels were so full of personality and so important to the development of the United States, I can only assume we’ll see more of them in future fiction. Let’s hope we do.