Childhood
Kenneth Kermit Roosevelt was born at the family residence Sagamore Hill in Oyster Bay, New York, the second son born to Theodore Roosevelt and his second wife, Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt. As a child he went by the nickname Kermit, and as an adult he adopted the name. He had an elder brother, Theodore Jr., and three younger siblings: Ethel, Archibald, and Quentin. His older half sister was Alice, from his father's first marriage to Alice Roosevelt.
As a child, he had little resistance to illness and infection. He had a flair for language, however, and read avidly. He showed a talent for writing that led to recording his experiences in World War I in a book.
After attending the Groton School, he enrolled at Harvard. In 1909 as a freshman, he and his father (recently out of office as President)—both of whom loved nature and outdoor sports—went on a safari in Africa. After this trip and a swing through Europe, Roosevelt returned to Harvard and completed four years of study in two and one-half years. He was a member of the Porcellian Club.
Read more about this topic: Kermit Roosevelt
Famous quotes containing the word childhood:
“Later you hear it wander the dark house
Like a mother who rises at night to seek a childhood picture;
Or it goes to the backyard and stands like an old horse cold in the
pasture.”
—Robert Penn Warren (1905–1989)
“The quickness with which all the “stuff” from childhood can reduce adult siblings to kids again underscores the strong and complex connections between brothers and sisters.... It doesn’t seem to matter how much time has elapsed or how far we’ve traveled. Our brothers and sisters bring us face to face with our former selves and remind us how intricately bound up we are in each other’s lives.”
—Jane Mersky Leder (20th century)
“Sensible people get the greater part of their own dying done during their own lifetime. A man at five and thirty should no more regret not having had a happier childhood than he should regret not having been born a prince of the blood.”
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902)