Alsop, Joseph, 1910-1989

Anna Roosevelt Cowles wishes she could visit with everyone at Sagamore Hill. She comments on the newspapers’ blaming Theodore Roosevelt for the various Democratic majorities. Her family is settling for the winter. William Sheffield Cowles enjoys public school and spending time with his friend Cameron McRae Winslow. Anna is trying to start a Boy Scout group. She reports that politically, Connecticut is “chastened and entangled” with Simeon E. Baldwin for Governor, and the Senatorial fight still rages. 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1910-11-14

Seven books, including two memoirs, are examined in six review essays in this edition of the “Book Notes” section. Michael L. Manson reviews two books on Theodore Roosevelt’s 1914 scientific expedition to Brazil; one penned by Roosevelt and the other by Joseph R. Ornig. Manson praises the forewords to both books written by Tweed Roosevelt, and he finds Ornig’s book provides a detailed look at the expedition and the cast of characters besides Roosevelt who made it successful. Stacy A. Cordery notes that journalist Joseph Alsop’s memoirs deal mostly with the major events and figures of the mid to late twentieth century, and she reveals Alsop’s opinions of various senators, presidents, and generals.

Richard P. Harmon faults Peter Collier’s The Roosevelts: An American Saga for focusing too much on the private lives of the two Roosevelt families, and he says that many of Collier’s assertions are not backed by evidence and that the book relies too much on a psychohistory approach. James Summerville asserts that H. Paul Jeffers’s look at Roosevelt’s tenure as Police Commissioner of New York City, Commissioner Roosevelt, disappoints and that readers should turn to Jay S. Berman’s study or to coverage of this period of Roosevelt’s career in biographies. John A. Gable provides a positive and short review of a short book, William H. Harbaugh’s fifty page history of Pine Knot, which Gable says is written with “charm and style.” Robert D. Dalziel, President of the Theodore Roosevelt Association (TRA), reviews the memoirs of Hamilton Fish, a winner of the TRA’s Distinguished Service Medal. Dalziel says that Fish’s opinions are straightforward and blunt like their author.

Two photographs appear in the section: one shows three members of the Rio Roosevelt Expedition of 1992 and the other dignitaries of the Dutch government at the Roosevelt Study Center in the Netherlands.

Peter R. Fisher gives a brief review of Joseph Alsop’s FDR, 1882-1945: A Centenary Remembrance and praises it for its photographs and many anecdotes while acknowledging that its discussion of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s career is “superficial.”

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1982

Obituary of Alice Roosevelt Longworth, the first born and last to die of Theodore Roosevelt’s children. The obituary details her celebrity status during her father’s presidency, her wedding to Congressman Nicholas Longworth, and his career in the House of Representatives. The notice also examines Alice Longworth’s decades long position as a Washington, D.C. power broker and socialite, and it notes her friendship with presidents, journalists, and celebrities. Her work in compiling an anthology of American poetry, her relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt, and her efforts to memorialize her father are also covered. The obituary notes her love of reading, acerbic wit, and sense of humor.

Four photographs accompany the article: the first shows Alice in 1904; the second shows the entire Roosevelt family, Theodore and Edith Roosevelt and all of their children and Alice’s husband, Nicholas Longworth, at the White House; the third shows Alice with her sister Ethel Derby and her brother Archibald Roosevelt at Theodore Roosevelt Island in Washington, D.C.; and the fourth is of Alice late in life.

A listing of the officers of the Theodore Roosevelt Association and the members of its executive, finance, and Theodore Roosevelt birthplace committees is included in the article.

Article that announces the annual meeting for 1978 of the Theodore Roosevelt Collection Committee which oversees the Theodore Roosevelt Collection at Harvard University. The article lists the members of the Theodore Roosevelt Association that serve on the committee, provides an update on the additions and contributions made to the collection, and lists the names of the individuals and organizations that made the donations. The article also says that a portrait of Theodore Roosevelt painted by George Burroughs Torrey at the White House had been donated to Harvard by Dr. Adelbert Ames. The article closes with a history of the Roosevelt Collection from 1919 to 1978.  

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1978

In addition to providing a summary of four of the articles published in this issue, John A. Gable uses the highlights the opening of Bulloch Hall in Roswell, Georgia, which was the childhood home of Theodore Roosevelt’s mother, Martha Bulloch Roosevelt. He notes the passing of Reginald Rose, a longtime member of the Theodore Roosevelt Association, and he talks about the lecture series celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of Sagamore Hill as a public house museum. He closes with a plug for the Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal. 

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1978

Executive Director John A. Gable gives a comprehensive report on the work of the Theodore Roosevelt Association (TRA) during 1978. He notes an increase in both membership and contributions, and details the day-to-day work of answering phone and letter inquiries about Theodore Roosevelt. In addition to covering aspects of established programs like the student essay and speaking contests and support of research grants made by the American Museum of Natural History, he details the programs surrounding the twenty-fifth anniversary of Sagamore Hill as a public house museum, the TRA’s support of Bulloch Hall, the home of Roosevelt’s mother, Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, in Roswell, Georgia, and the Roosevelt Genealogical Project.

Two photographs and one illustration are included as part of this article. One photograph shows John A. Gable, Executive Director of the Theodore Roosevelt Association, presenting a check to Emmett Rushin of the Roswell (Georgia) Historic Preservation Committee; the other is of Theodore Roosevelt Association (TRA) President Howard T. Hogan. The illustration is of the front cover of the TRA’s book, Sagamore Hill: An Historical Guide.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Theodore Roosevelt is greatly concerned about William Sheffield Cowles Jr.’s health and for Anna Roosevelt Cowles given the anxiety she has over her son’s recovery. Roosevelt and his wife, Edith, will meet Anna in New York as soon as she is able to travel there. Roosevelt offers to have his great-nephew “little Joe” Alsop for a visit, and he is eager to show him books about exotic wildlife.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1915-02-28