Bazalgette, Léon, 1873-1928

William N. Tilchin charts the path to publication of the translation of a French booklet about Theodore Roosevelt by Leon Bazalgette. The 1905 tract was translated by Roosevelt biographer Edmund Morris and offered to John A. Gable, editor of the Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal (TRAJ), in 2001. Tilchin describes the rediscovery of the translation by Gregory A. Wynn and the subsequent enlistment of the French Roosevelt scholar Serge Ricard to assist in the publication and contextualization of the translation. The front cover illustrations from works by Ricard and Morris supplement the text.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

2020

Creator(s)

Tilchin, William N., 1950-

Serge Ricard recounts his involvement with the Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal in publishing Edmund Morris’s translation of Leon Bazalgette’s 1905 booklet about Theodore Roosevelt. Ricard provides biographies of Bazalgette and another French scholar, Albert Savine, who published a longer study of Roosevelt in 1904. Ricard highlights Bazalgette’s other biographies of notable Americans, Walt Whitman and Henry David Thoreau, and he notes that Savine translated four of Roosevelt’s books into French.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

2020

Creator(s)

Ricard, Serge

Serge Ricard provides three pages of corrections, clarifications, and explanations of Edmund Morris’s translation of Leon Bazalgette’s booklet Theodore Roosevelt. Ricard admits that “Morris knew French very well,” and he applauds his translation. Most of his comments and corrections are minor, and he makes it plain when he feels Morris has mistranslated Bazalgette’s writing. Ricard supplies excerpts from both Roosevelt’s writings and from others to clarify a point or to supply a quotation that escaped Morris.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

2020

Creator(s)

Ricard, Serge

In “Best Wishes From Oyster Bay,” twenty-six friends, colleagues, and fellow historians offer their thoughts on the life and work of John A. Gable, the Executive Director of the Theodore Roosevelt Association (TRA) and the founder and editor of the Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal. Some of the themes that recur are Gable’s support and mentoring of historians and biographers in the early stages of their careers, his encyclopedic knowledge of Theodore Roosevelt, and his promotion of membership in the TRA. The authors also note his unsentimental critique of their work and his fostering a truce between the feuding Oyster Bay and Hyde Park, New York factions of the Roosevelt family. Two of the contributors, William N. Tilchin and Gregory A. Wynn, share some of their correspondence with Gable to demonstrate these themes, and almost all of the contributors highlight Gable’s generosity with his time and talents.

The piece includes a table of contents on its first page and it concludes with brief biographies of each of the authors. Twenty-three photographs populate the text, including twenty of Gable.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

2005

John A. Gable reviews the second volume of Edmund Morris’s biography of Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Rex. Gable notes the literary character of the work, and he argues that Henry F. Pringle’s biography of Roosevelt is still read not because of its judgments, but because it is well written. Gable also compares Morris’s book to those of Lewis L. Gould and William Henry Harbaugh, and he quotes from several reviews of Theodore Rex in leading newspapers and magazines. Gable singles out the critical review of Christine Stansell, and he rebuffs some of her arguments by quoting from a response he wrote to her review. Gable concludes his essay by noting that many reviewers found parallels between the events of September 11, 2001 and the assassination of President William McKinley in September 1901. 

 

A photograph of Roosevelt, two of Morris, and a text box advertising a CD-ROM published by the Theodore Roosevelt Association appear in the review.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Serge Ricard traces the presence of Theodore Roosevelt in France by surveying the works of French authors and historians and finds that Roosevelt has struggled to gain a large following in France when compared to other American presidents. Ricard lists some of the translations of Roosevelt’s writings, notes the rise of interest in Roosevelt during his presidency, and discusses the long gaps in Roosevelt scholarship produced in France. Ricard also lists six articles he has written about Roosevelt.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1984

Creator(s)

Ricard, Serge