Readers, I've been reveling in my new found ability to read whatever random book that strikes my random fancy, and this week I'm all in a froth over one called The River of Doubt by Candice Millard (a suggestion from my friend Kathy--thanks, Kathy!). It's about Teddy Roosevelt's ill-planned & near-disastrous expedition down the River of Doubt, a then-unmapped tributary of the Amazon River, on which he almost died of malaria and/or dysentery.
He was making the exploratory journey under the quasi-endorsement of the American Museum of Natural History--which reacted with horror after Teddy changed his plans just after arriving in South America. He had initially planned a relatively sedated tour which included only a minimal amount of exploration, but switched to the more dangerous, death-wish conjuring expedition at the last minute (ostensibly because he was still sulking over a thorough spanking in the 1912 presidential election, running as the Progressive Party candidate, losing to Woodrow Wilson. He was such a sore loser that he didn't even take consolation in the fact that he at least beat poor Taft...). Have you ever seen the Herzog film Aguirre, the Wrath of God? Roosevelt's plan evoked similar themes of peril, misery, madness and death on the Amazon.
The President of the museum was Henry Fairfield Osborn (the paleontologist who named the T Rex and velociraptor, for all you Jurassic Park nerds out there), and he had a shit fit over Roosevelt's new plan. My favorite Roosevelt quote so far is his response to his dithering pal Frank Chapman, who was nervously mediating between Osborn and Roosevelt:
"Tell Osborn I have already lived and enjoyed as much of life as any nine other men I know; I have had my full share, and if it is necessary for me to leave my bones in South America, I am quite ready to do so."
Snap!
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