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.
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Famous quotes containing the word childhood:
“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)
“Oh! mystery of man, from what a depth
Proceed thy honours. I am lost, but see
In simple childhood something of the base
On which thy greatness stands; but this I feel,
That from thyself it comes, that thou must give,
Else never canst receive. The days gone by
Return upon me almost from the dawn
Of life: the hiding-places of man’s power
Open; I would approach them, but they close.”
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850)