BOOK REVIEW: If a Poem Could Live and Breathe by Mary Calvi

If a Poem Could Live and Breathe by Mary Calvi is a historical romance based on the love story of Teddy Roosevelt and his first wife, Alice Hathaway Lee. It incorporates actual love letters discovered in a cache of Alice’s papers at Harvard’s Houghton Library.

They met when Alice was a seventeen-year-old about-to-be debutante in Cambridge. She was a member of an old Boston family and her mother, the villain of the piece, had strict ideas of what women must do. Essentially, behave politely and marry well. Alice, who was of a more intellectual bent, was desperate to go to the new women’s college affiliated with Harvard.

At this time, Theodore Roosevelt was a Harvard student. Although he was a bit of an outsider, being from New York, his athleticism, brains, and good humor made him a favorite among his classmates and won him Alice’s heart.

The two suffered from chronic health problems. Roosevelt had terrible asthma as a child, which he had largely, but not completely, outgrown. Alice had a more mysterious recurring illness that was diagnosed as a nervous condition related to her overburdening her brain with too many thoughts of education. Alice suffered under her mother’s tyranny, and part of her attraction to Roosevelt was his more progressive view of women’s rights. He would have been happy to have her obtain an education, although it is unclear how that could have worked out. Their marriage, unfortunately, was tragically short.

I was very interested in their story and eager to see the love letters. These were mainly sent after their engagement and marriage, while Theodore was traveling and campaigning for political office. However, the book did not grip me as I thought it would. The courtship was a bit cloying and, for me, not very interesting. They spent a lot of time coming up with nicknames for one another. The letters essentially said I love you so much over and over again. The book does give convincing period details: what they wore, what they ate, and what games they played. But for me, there wasn’t enough depth to the account to make a truly satisfying story. Still, my opinion is in the minority. Most reviewers are giving this novel 4 or 5 stars, so give it a try.