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

By Andrew Vietze 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 America's twenty-sixth president. Becoming Teddy Roosevelt is the story of the remarkable bond between these two men of completely different backgrounds but surprisingly similar outlooks, a bond that endured well after one of them moved into the White House.

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