If a Poem Could Live and Breathe

A Novel of Teddy Roosevelt's First Love

By: Mary Calvi

Narrated by: Lauren Ezzo

A fact-based romantic speculative novel about Teddy Roosevelt’s first love, by Mary Calvi, author of Dear George, Dear Mary

Studded with the real love letters between a young Theodore Roosevelt and Boston beauty Alice Lee―many of them never before published―If a Poem Could Live and Breathe makes vivid what many historians believe to be the pivotal years that made the future president into the man of action that defined his political life, and cemented his legacy.

Cambridge, 1878. The era of the Gilded Age. Alice Lee sets out to break from the norms of her mother’s generation. Women are fighting for educational opportunities and exploring a new sense of intellectual and personal freedom. Native New Yorker, Harvard student Teddy Roosevelt, is on his own journey of discovery, and when they meet, unrelenting currents of love change the trajectory of his life forever.

If a Poem Could Live and Breathe is an indelible portrait of the authenticity of first love, the heartache of loss, and how overcoming the worst of life’s obstacles can push one to greatness never imagined.

©2023 Mary Calvi (P)2023 Blackstone Publishing

Thea thinks not

I couldn't get into this story, just a back and forth between Alice & Thea. I understand it's from love letters found, but they were boring.

A powerful love story!

Thank you for using their letters to open a window to such a deep and pure love, nothing better than their own words.