Mary Calvi talks about Teddy Roosevelt's love letters

Teddy Roosevelt leads no charges in Mary Calvi’s “If a Poem Could Live and Breathe” (St. Martin's Press, $28.99). Instead, Roosevelt emerges in Calvi’s novel as a sensitive, poetic and decidedly romantic young man.

The book is a fictional account of Roosevelt’s courtship, in the 1880s, of spirited, feisty Alice Lee, who eventually became his wife. Calvi’s version was inspired by a cache of love letters between Roosevelt and Lee that she discovered “hiding in plain sight” while doing research at Harvard. (Many of these missives were subsequently included In the novel.)

In a recent interview with Newsday, Calvi, who is also a longtime anchor with WCBS/2 news, recalled her four years of work on the book:

What drew you to the story of Roosevelt and Lee’s courtship?  

I had a hunch that there was more to their story [than exists in other published accounts]. I wanted to look at Teddy Roosevelt as a young man and I wanted to focus on him at Harvard. So I read his diary and journals. He wrote about Alice hundreds of times.

Some historians claim that the letters Roosevelt wrote to Alice no longer exist. What led you to challenge this notion and how did you find the letters?

I had a hunch the letters they wrote did exist. If a man was so in love with a woman, would he destroy the letters? The letters were not among Roosevelt’s papers, but had been donated by Alice’s family to the Houghton Library at Harvard, and they were specifically under the Longworth family papers. It’s possible — though I’m not 100% sure — the letters were overlooked because they were with the Longworth family papers and photographs.

One Roosevelt biographer dismissed Alice as “bland and uncomplicated." What made you think otherwise?

I felt the full story hadn’t been told. I felt strongly that Alice was not how she was being portrayed in the history books. Alice was crashing the gender barrier; she attended boxing matches, she played tennis. She and Teddy were debating poetry and politics. It didn’t sound bland at all. I was completely invested in finding out about her.  

The image of Teddy Roosevelt we see in the novel differs from the robust, aggressive leader most biographies convey. In your novel he appears sensitive, even tentative. Did you discover this aspect of him while doing your research?

In the letters, we see him as a young man who has fallen in love and also a man who is coming of age. Sometimes while reading the letters, I felt like I was intruding.

Did your research take you to Sagamore Hill and Oyster Bay?

If it wasn’t for Sagamore Hill, I wouldn’t have been able to find these accounts of Roosevelt as a young man.  They led me to where I need to be. There are so many letters he wrote from that spot. To explore the outdoors, to be able to see these scenes he wrote about was quite incredible. You get this beautiful feeling there of what it must have been like for him then.

Your writing in the book captures the sense of reserve and the formality of the period. How did you capture this style?

I wanted to make sure my writing matched what they were saying to each other. I immersed myself in their letters. I spent a lot of time looking at the way they were written. I also read a lot in the Harvard newspapers and magazines written in the 1880s. I concentrated on those sources. I didn’t look at fiction.

Reading the book, one is constantly struck by the manners and courtesies people exercised during this period. How do you think Teddy and Alice would feel if they now returned  to our often angry, divided country?

Teddy Roosevelt knew the art of getting along with people, even with people who didn’t like him. He could figure out a way to develop a relationship with any other human being in this world. That was his gift: being able to communicate, to find a connection. That, I think would carry over to this day.

Alice would be amazed how far women have come. When she was trying to move the needle, it was very difficult. I believe she’d be very impressed. Women have made it to a point that she wouldn’t have imagined in the 1880s.