Becoming Teddy Roosevelt: How a Maine Guide Inspired America's 26th President

Today we think of Theodore Roosevelt as a larger-than-life figure, but before he became a legendary outdoorsman, Badlands rancher, Rough Rider, trust buster, and political maverick, he was "a thin pale youngster with bad eyes and a weak heart," in the words of William Wingate Sewall, the upcountry Maine woodsman who became Roosevelt's mentor and lifelong friend. The two met at a crucial time in Roosevelt's life, and Sewall exerted a quiet but profound influence on the man who would become A...