When I was going over the final proofs for the book, I was eight months pregnant, and I received the startling and terrifying news that the child I was carrying had been diagnosed in utero with a rare and very serious form of cancer. I spent weeks in Brazil’s sprawling cities and vast rainforest, and I travelled to this river, which is now known as the Rio Roosevelt but is still incredibly remote. I had spent years researching the story, which is about an expedition Theodore Roosevelt took down an unmapped river in the Amazon rainforest in 1914. This realisation first struck me when I was working on my first book, The River of Doubt. Theodore Roosevelt in 1904, during his presidential campaign.
But it is a great levelling quality of life that all of us will at some point know moments of great doubt and hardship – and we can recognize in those moments the essential humanity of historical subjects who have become so famous they can otherwise seem almost mythical. Only a handful of us will ever lead an army, or make a scientific breakthrough, or win election to high office. Because all of us know those moments in our own lives, they also serve to connect us in a very real way with personalities that we might otherwise view only from a distance. These stories, of sickness and sorrow, fear and desperation, can often be lost in the chaos of a crowded life, but they, more than any others, let us plumb the depths of true character.
#DEFINING MOMENTS IN LIFE TRIAL#
What interests me more than moments of public triumph or infamy are instances of private trial and struggle, when no one can hide their weaknesses – or indeed their strengths. So my purpose in trying to understand my subject is to select those particular moments where, I believe, that interior view is the clearest. Events do not determine a human being’s character they reveal it. I also believe that there is no necessary correlation – especially in an extraordinary life – between the conspicuous public events and the deeper personal instincts and motivations that uniquely define each of us.
Electifying … Obama’s speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
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