Quentin & Flora

For the first time, the compelling tale of Quentin Roosevelt, President Theodore Roosevelt's youngest son, and his secret fianc e, Flora Payne Whitney, is told in rich and absorbing detail by New York Times Bestselling-Author Chip Bishop. At the ebb of the Gilded Age, young Quentin is the scion of America most celebrated political family. And lovely Flora is the privileged daughter of the Whitneys and the Vanderbilts, two of the nation's richest dynasties. The lives of Quentin and Flora intersect at the dawn of the Great War in Europe after each has grown up in the public spotlight - he in the White House and she in the storied mansions of New York and Newport. His childhood precociousness charms the nation and parallels Flora's envelopment in her parents' worlds of high art, luxury yachts and personal unfaithfulness. Quentin and Flora reach beyond their families' orbits to begin a searching adolescent companionship that evolves inexorably into a fairy tale romance, challenged by the danger of war and a vast and perilous ocean. Through their actual letters, deeply unexplored for a hundred years, we share their youthful dreams and desires, and partake in the agony of their separation amid encircling, high-level political intrigue. We learn of their last night together, secluded on her father's yacht, and their hush-hush engagement. Quentin sails for France with a determination to prove his stuff in aerial combat against the Kaiser's air force, only to be foiled at first by military indecisiveness and, ironically, his own exceptional competence. When an unexpected chance to fly comes, Quentin's choice opens a deep schism among the Roosevelts, one that pits father against sons. Is Quentin a victim or a slacker? On the home front, Flora and an aging and embittered Theodore Roosevelt struggle to find a way through wartime red tape so she can go to France and marry Quentin before combat begins. At last, freed from constraints, Quentin sets off for the war front. There, he powers his biplane deep into dangerous German-occupied skies in a thunderous clash that exposes both his bravado and courage. For the centennial of the Great War, Quentin and Flora is a true and moving tale of courage, heroism and young love. Set against the backdrop of Theodore Roosevelt's lofty expectations for his son and his own tragic demise, the story is a richly-drawn and gripping saga for the ages. Superbly written and forcefully told, the book is a soon-to-be-classic page turner that will make you chuckle and compel you to weep.