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The Beast in the Clouds
The Roosevelt Brothers' Deadly Quest to Find the Mythical Giant Panda
Table of Contents
About The Book
“A beautiful and powerful book.” —Candice Millard, New York Times bestselling author
“Valuable, revelatory, and contagiously page-turning.” —David Michaelis, New York Times bestselling author
“Far more than an exquisitely rendered account of a quest to track the giant panda...Holt’s storytelling is powerful and timeless.” —Brian Murphy, New York Times bestselling author
For lovers of history, nature, and adventure, the stunning true story of Theodore Roosevelt’s sons and their 1929 Himalayan expedition to prove the existence of the beishung, the panda bear, to the western world, from the New York Times bestselling author of Rise of the Rocket Girls.
The Himalayas—a snowcapped mountain range that hides treacherous glacier crossings, raiders poised to attack unsuspecting travelers, and air so thin that even seasoned explorers die of oxygen deprivation. Yet among the dangers lies one of the most beautiful and fragile ecosystems in the world.
During the 1920s, dozens of expeditions scoured the Chinese and Tibetan wilderness in search of the panda bear, a beast that many believed did not exist. When the two eldest sons of President Theodore Roosevelt sought the bear in 1928, they had little hope of success. Together with a team of scientists and naturalists, they accomplished what a decade of explorers could not, ultimately introducing the panda to the West. In the process, they documented a vanishing world and set off a new era of conservation biology.
Along the way, the Roosevelt expedition faced an incredible series of hardships as they disappeared in a blizzard, were attacked by robbers, overcome by sickness and disease, and lost their food supply in the mountains. The explorers would emerge transformed, although not everyone would survive. Beast in the Clouds brings alive these extraordinary events in a potent nonfiction thriller featuring the indomitable Roosevelt family.
From the soaring beauty of the Tibetan plateau to the somber depths of human struggle, Nathalia Holt brings her signature “immersive, evocative” (Bookreporter) voice to this astonishing tale of adventure, harrowing defeat, and dazzling success.
“Valuable, revelatory, and contagiously page-turning.” —David Michaelis, New York Times bestselling author
“Far more than an exquisitely rendered account of a quest to track the giant panda...Holt’s storytelling is powerful and timeless.” —Brian Murphy, New York Times bestselling author
For lovers of history, nature, and adventure, the stunning true story of Theodore Roosevelt’s sons and their 1929 Himalayan expedition to prove the existence of the beishung, the panda bear, to the western world, from the New York Times bestselling author of Rise of the Rocket Girls.
The Himalayas—a snowcapped mountain range that hides treacherous glacier crossings, raiders poised to attack unsuspecting travelers, and air so thin that even seasoned explorers die of oxygen deprivation. Yet among the dangers lies one of the most beautiful and fragile ecosystems in the world.
During the 1920s, dozens of expeditions scoured the Chinese and Tibetan wilderness in search of the panda bear, a beast that many believed did not exist. When the two eldest sons of President Theodore Roosevelt sought the bear in 1928, they had little hope of success. Together with a team of scientists and naturalists, they accomplished what a decade of explorers could not, ultimately introducing the panda to the West. In the process, they documented a vanishing world and set off a new era of conservation biology.
Along the way, the Roosevelt expedition faced an incredible series of hardships as they disappeared in a blizzard, were attacked by robbers, overcome by sickness and disease, and lost their food supply in the mountains. The explorers would emerge transformed, although not everyone would survive. Beast in the Clouds brings alive these extraordinary events in a potent nonfiction thriller featuring the indomitable Roosevelt family.
From the soaring beauty of the Tibetan plateau to the somber depths of human struggle, Nathalia Holt brings her signature “immersive, evocative” (Bookreporter) voice to this astonishing tale of adventure, harrowing defeat, and dazzling success.
About The Author
Larkin Holt
Nathalia Holt, PhD, is the New York Times bestselling author of Rise of the Rocket Girls, Wise Gals, The Queens of Animation, and Cured. She has written for numerous publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, Slate, Popular Science, PBS, and Time. She is a former fellow at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard University. She lives with her husband and their two daughters in Pacific Grove, California. Find out more at NathaliaHolt.com.
Product Details
- Publisher: Atria/One Signal Publishers (July 1, 2025)
- Length: 288 pages
- ISBN13: 9781668027769
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Raves and Reviews
"Holt knows how to tell a mesmerizing story, and with The Beast in the Clouds she has combined her careful research and extraordinarily graceful writing with a little-known, endlessly fascinating story. The result is a beautiful and powerful book."
—Candice Millard, author of The River of Doubt
"Valuable, revelatory, and contagiously page-turning: Holt has reconstructed a 1929 Himalayan expedition in new, immersive detail to show how proving the existence of the giant panda changed the lives of the two eldest sons of the original Teddy Bear, President Theodore Roosevelt, and forever altered the course of wildlife conservation."
—David Michaelis, author of Eleanor
"An astonishing true story of adversity and ecological adventure. Holt puts readers inside the boots and minds of the Roosevelt brothers and their small cadre of explorers as they navigate their inner terrain of ambition, regret, and redemption."
—Carol Shaben, author of Into the Abyss
"The Beast in the Clouds is more than just a great historical narrative. It's a compelling story about the folly of man and the beauty of nature in a time of mystery."
—Keith O'Brien, author of Fly Girls and Charlie Hustle
"Far more than just an exquisitely rendered account of a quest to track the giant panda in the bamboo forests of the Tibetan Plateau. Nathalia Holt also takes us on a darker journey of hubris and a misguided sense of destiny by Teddy Roosevelt’s sons that brought struggles, blunders and, in the end, moral reckonings. The storytelling is powerful and timeless."
—Brian Murphy, author of 81 Days Below Zero
"A wonderfully wrought, compelling and provocative account. Holt skillfully weaves together the Roosevelts' own histories, that of the natural world around them, and the exacting price of their journey's success."
—Susan Berfield, author of The Hour of Fate
"The Beast in the Clouds evokes many of the sights, sounds--and indeed the pains and fevers--of a natural history museum expedition. Anyone interested in the romance of exploration will find this to be of interest."
—Darrin Lunde, author of The Naturalist
"Readers will vanish, along with the Roosevelt brothers, into a world of hidden dangers and astonishing delights. The panda lurks in every corner of Nathalia Holt’s The Beast in the Clouds, an exquisitely crafted book packed with adventure, mystery, and thorny dilemmas about what it means to hold all life sacred."
—Melissa L. Sevigny, author of Brave the Wild River
"A beautifully crafted story of science, discovery, and adventure, The Beast in the Clouds follows Ted and Kermit Roosevelt on their nearly fatal search for the legendary giant panda. Tracing the brother’s journey through a China torn by warlordism, Nathalia Holt captures with a rare historical sensitivity both the immediacy of that moment and the personal demons that brought these sons of one of America’s most famous presidents to the Himalayas."
—David S. Brown, author of The First Populist and The Last American Aristocrat
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