PRIMARY CHARACTERSM
THEODORE ROOSEVELT, also known as Teddy, TR, and the Cowboy King. Rancher, writer, raconteur, naturalist, political reformer, New York City Police Commissioner, Rough Rider, Governor of New York, Vice President, and future President of the United States.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT SENIOR, also known as Brave Heart. TR’s father was a wealthy philanthropist and an Allotment Commissioner during the Civil War. He was the strongest influence in TR’s life.
EDITH CAROW ROOSEVELT, also known as Edie, TR’s second wife. Devoted to TR, she was much more reclusive than he was. The mistress of Sagamore Hill, she managed almost all of TR’s financial affairs and would give him a daily allowance.
ANNA ROOSEVELT, also known as Bamie, Auntie Bye, and Bysie. TR’s older sister, she remained his shrewdest political advisor. Born with a crooked spine, Bamie was written off as an old maid until she married naval officer William Sheffield Cowles when she was forty.
ELLIOTT ROOSEVELT, also known as Ellie. TR’s younger brother was a gifted athlete and hunter, but he lacked TR’s iron will. He would die at the age of thirty-four, an utterly broken man.
NANCY FOWLER, also known as Nan, a bunco artist who would become a crime reporter for Joseph Pulitzer and remain one of TR’s devoted friends.
WILLIAM WINTERS-WHITE, a war correspondent who would accompany TR to Cuba and fight alongside the Rough Riders.
THOMAS COLLIER PLATT, also known as the Easy Boss and Senator Tom. Chief of New York’s Republican Party, he had mixed feelings about TR and his maverick brand of politics. Yet TR couldn’t have survived if the Easy Boss hadn’t meddled on his behalf.
ALICE HATHAWAY LEE ROOSEVELT, TR’s first wife. Blond, vibrant, and beautiful, she would die at the age of twenty-two, after giving birth to a daughter, Alice Lee Roosevelt.
ALICE LEE ROOSEVELT, also known as Baby Lee, Little Alice, and Sissy. TR’s oldest and most problematic child. She was as much of a maverick as he was and would wound him and delight him in her own spectacular way.
TAGGART, a Pinkerton detective who would later serve in the Rough Riders and transform himself from TR’s fiercest enemy into one of his most loyal friends.
SERGEANT RADDISON, leader of the bicycle squad when TR was Police Commissioner. He would also serve in the Rough Riders.
JOSEPHINE, a cougar cub.
SECONDARY CHARACTERS
MARTHA BULLOCH ROOSEVELT, TR’s mother, also known as Mittie. A Southerner who felt trapped in Manhattan, she would soon become a childlike waif.
ANNA BULLOCH, also known as Auntie Anna, was Mittie’s eldest sister.
GRANDMAMMA BULLOCH, Mittie’s mother.
CORINNE ROOSEVELT, also known as Connie. TR’s younger sister.
HYNES, one of Brave Heart’s servants. He stole from the Roosevelts’ cashbox and was caught by Bamie.
QUENTIN MOSS, night watchman at the Newsboys’ Lodging-House, one of the charitable institutions founded by Brave Heart.
ARTHUR HAMILTON CUTLER, TR’s tutor.
MRS. VALENTINA MORRIS, Elliott Roosevelt’s mistress, who would remain utterly devoted to him.
VELVET BILL HOWE and LITTLE ABE HUMMEL, two mythical nineteenth century lawyers who were the sultans of criminal court; they rarely ever lost a case.
MISS KATIE MANN, Elliott’s Bavarian chambermaid who had a love child with him, and was represented by Howe & Hummel. The two sultans realized that TR couldn’t afford to have the little boy’s presence revealed.
ANNA HALL ROOSEVELT, Elliott’s hypnotically beautiful wife, who died of diphtheria at the age of twenty-nine.
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT, also known as Granny. TR’s niece was the eldest child of Elliott and Anna Hall Roosevelt. This gawky girl, who dressed in Baby Lee’s hand-me-downs, was Elliott’s favorite and the future wife of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. She would become one of the most revered women of the twentieth century.
HUMBLE JAKE HESS, leader of Morton Hall, Manhattan’s Twenty-first Republican District headquarters, and an early supporter of TR.
HENRY GEORGE, prominent nineteenth century socialist who ran for Mayor of New York in 1886 on the United Labor ticket.
DON RUEBEN, leader of the Vaqueros, a band of Cuban mercenaries, during the Spanish-American War.
BUFFALO BILL CODY, frontiersman and scout, who would later become head of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West.
NANNIE CABOT LODGE, wife of Henry Cabot Lodge, United States Senator from Massachusetts. She had an incredible charisma.
CABOT, i.e., HENRY CABOT LODGE, a fellow Harvard graduate, who was one of TR’s closest political allies.
MARK HANNA, also known as Fat Marcus. Affluent United States Senator from Ohio who served as President McKinley’s chief political strategist.
MINNIE G. KELLY, TR’s private secretary at Police Headquarters.
DR. FERDINAND JESSUP, Manhattan’s chief coroner.
ASHBEL GRIEF, chairman of the Social Reform Club in Manhattan while TR was Police Commissioner.
SERGEANT FLEISCHER, the telephone dispatcher at Police Headquarters during TR’s reign.
KING CALLAHAN, owner of the King’s Table, a bar on Third Avenue. He fought against Police Commissioner Roosevelt’s blue laws.
WHITEY WHITMAN, a crooked deputy inspector chased off the police force by TR.
ARCHIBALD TOWNE, New York County Sheriff, a despot and a thief.
SAMUEL BRATT, a shyster lawyer who defended Sheriff Towne in front of TR’s Corruption Committee.
BRYSON CARTERETT, prosecutor of a small town in Indian Territory.
LONG JOHN McMANUS, a thug for the Republican Party who nearly ruined TR’s career.
TED, KERMIT, ETHEL, ARCHIBALD, and QUENTIN ROOSEVELT, also known as the bunnies; they were the five children that TR had with Edith.
CAPTAIN LEONARD WOOD, President’s McKinley’s personal physician, TR’s trusted friend, and the first commander of the Rough Riders.
RUSSELL ALGER, Secretary of War in the McKinley Administration.
FIGHTIN’ JOE WHEELER, a United States Army general who fought on the Confederate side during the Civil War.
GENERAL WILLIAM RUFUS SHAFTER, head of the Fifth Army Corps.
PETER ALBRIGHT, leader of the Stranglers, a group of vigilantes in the Badlands.
RED FINNEGAN, a Badlands gunslinger who would later join TR’s Rough Riders.
BLACK JACK McGRAW, a cardsharp in the Badlands who hid among the Sioux.
CORPORAL ANTONIA/ANTON LITTLE FEATHER, a female Rough Rider who disguised herself as a male and carried the regimental flag into battle.
BARDSHAR, TR’s orderly in Cuba.
SERGEANT BELLOWS, TR’s body-servant while both were with the Rough Riders.
LITTLE HAYNES, a cloakroom attendant at the Capitol in Albany.
DR. MARTIN FARADAY, head of the Bronx Zoo.
DR. LIONEL TRELL, chief surgeon at the Bronx Zoo.
ABEL MARTINSON, a sharpshooter among the Rough Riders who worked for Buffalo Bill’s Wild West after the war.
YOUNG-MAN-AFRAID-OF-THE-SOUND-OF-HIS-OWN-VOICE, a Pawnee scout among the Rough Riders who later worked for Buffalo Bill.
GEORGE B. CORTELYOU, President McKinley’s private secretary.
JOHN HAY, President McKinley’s Secretary of State, who had mythical status, since he’d once been President Lincoln’s private secretary.
IDA McKINLEY, President McKinley’s half-deranged wife.