Learn more about the women and family who created President Roosevelt—a new book heralded by the New York Times, "with meticulous research...O’Keefe has performed a most valuable service by reminding us how much Theodore Roosevelt, the most virile of presidents, owed to the brilliant women in his life."

In this evening of revelations and family history, Edward F. O’Keefe shines light on The Loves of Theodore Roosevelt, the women who “created the President,” including his mother, sisters, and his wives. His insightful book is based on dozens of interviews with Roosevelt descendants, thousands of archives, and new discoveries at Harvard and at the Roosevelt home Sagamore Hill. Following an illustrated presentation showcasing new and exclusive photographs, O’Keefe and the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Debby Applegate will explore the lives and influence of, among others, TR’s Southern belle mother, Mittie, and sisters, Bamie and Conie; his first wife, Alice Lee, the Boston-born college sweetheart who launched him into politics; and his second wife, Edith Kermit Carow, who curated both the White House and her husband’s legacy. Don’t miss their discussion of political and women’s history—family history at its finest and most feminine.

Edward F. O’Keefe is the CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation. He previously spent two decades in broadcast and digital media at ABC News, CNN, and NowThis, during which time he received a Primetime Emmy Award for his work with Anthony Bourdain, two Webby Awards, the Edward R. Murrow Award, and a George Foster Peabody Award for ABC’s coverage of 9/11. A former fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, he graduated with honors from Georgetown University. He was born in North Dakota and lives in New York.

Debby Applegate is a historian and biographer based in New Haven, CT. Her first book, The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher, won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for biography and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for biography. Her second book, Madam: The Biography of Polly Adler, Icon of the Jazz Age was named a New York Times Editors’ Choice Best Books of 2021 and won an Earphones Award for best audiobook.

Signed copies of the book are available through our partners at Porter Square Books. Use this link and input the code AMINSP24 on the order page. Books sent after the event.  

Presented in partnership with Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University and GBH Forum Network