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President Roosevelt writes to his son Kermit about a planned trip by Mother, Edith, Archie, and Quentin aborted due to the snow. Roosevelt has been negotiating with the Californians over their discriminating against Japanese children. Roosevelt laments that there are problems with everything he is trying to accomplish, then closes the letter by discussing the work of Mark Twain and Robert Browning.
1907-02-16
Theodore Roosevelt read Thomas R. Lounsbury’s volume on Robert Browning with keen pleasure and agrees with Lounsbury. He is very fond of Browning’s work, even those he cannot understand. Roosevelt theorizes that others read Browning for the puzzle of figuring out his philosophy. Lounsbury’s article on themes delighted Roosevelt, especially as Kermit Roosevelt is taking a course on the subject. He is annoyed by the general belief that some new machinery will solve educational, political, and social problems.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-11-27
Theodore Roosevelt thanks Ralph W. E. Southworth and his family.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1912-11-25
President Roosevelt instructs John T. Loomis to remove some books and substitute some others in the collection of works that he plans to bring with him on his African safari. Roosevelt would like all the books to be bound in pigskin, to better protect them on the journey.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-11-26
President Roosevelt discusses his and Kermit Roosevelt’s preferences for the poetry of Edwin Arlington Robinson, Robert Browning, and Homer with David Gray. Roosevelt mentions how Kermit brought Robinson to his attention and how he appointed Robinson to a civil service post at the New York Custom House.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-07-20
President Roosevelt updates his son Kermit about his mother’s and siblings’ lives, as well as the legislative progress he has made recently. Roosevelt has had difficulties with California, Japan, and Panama. He agrees with Kermit about the merits of Mark Twain and Robert Browning and their use of history as a narrative tool.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-02-16
President Roosevelt looks forward to receiving a book from Frederick Jesup Stimson. He thanks Stimson for sending him a syllabus, and is not surprised that the class produced many answers in answer to a question on poetry.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-06-14
After talking with George Horace Lorimer, President Roosevelt went back and read The Plum Tree through all the way, after previously having read only half of it. The ending of the book reconciles Roosevelt to many of the problems he had with it throughout, but he still holds many issues with the book which he lays out for Lorimer. The author, David Graham Phillips, falls into the trap of overstating the sort of corruption that is present in politics, and while Roosevelt freely admits that corruption is present–which, he points out, he is working against–there are also many good people working in politics as well. In a postscript of several days later, Roosevelt comments on several of Phillips’s articles on the Senate, in which he acts similarly by taking “certain facts that are true in themselves, and […] ignoring utterly a very much large mass of facts that are just as true and just as important.” Roosevelt criticizes Phillips for working with William Randolph Hearst to achieve notoriety.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-05-12
President Roosevelt tells Robert Grant that Edwin Arlington Robinson’s poem “Captain Craig” is like Robert Browning “at his worst.” He is glad that Grant feels the way he does about the Japanese terms and will show Grant the letters he sent them.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-09-02
Assistant Secretary of the Navy Roosevelt thoroughly enjoyed William Allen White’s speech. He will send White a copy of his volume of essays once it is complete.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1897-09-13
John T. Loomis sends one of the best selected editions of Edgar Allan Poe’s tales for President Roosevelt to examine. He discusses the different volumes and selections of other books that Roosevelt might want. The total weight of the books as they currently are is roughly 55 and a half pounds. Loomis hopes to reduce this weight by trimming the edges of some volumes. He asks Roosevelt which he should trim, and whether he wants all the books bound in pigskin.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-11-25
Chronology of the daily life of Theodore Roosevelt from January 1884 to December 1891. Notable events include the deaths of Alice Lee Roosevelt and Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, Roosevelt’s time on his ranch, the completion of Sagamore Hill, Roosevelt’s engagement and marriage to Edith Kermit Carow, Theodore “Ted” Roosevelt’s birth, the “Great-Dieup” of cattle in North Dakota, and the founding of the Boone and Crockett Club.
Theodore Roosevelt Association
1985
Moore, Robert J. (Robert John), 1956-; Theodore Roosevelt Association
Wallace Finley Dailey presents an exhibit, “Roosevelt Reading: The Pigskin Library, 1909-1910,” that opened at Harvard University in September 2003. Dailey provides an introduction to the exhibit which consists of photographs, excerpts of letters, and illustrations of the numerous pigskin bound volumes that Theodore Roosevelt took with him on his African safari. The exhibit is divided into three parts: “Classics and the Continent,” History and Romance,” and “Americans.” Many of the book illustrations have captions taken from letters or articles written by Roosevelt that comment on the book and its author.
Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal
2013
Transcript of a speech given by George Otto Trevelyan at a bookseller’s dinner. Trevelyan discusses many matters relating to bookselling, book buying, and publishing. He also discusses his reminiscences with various literary figures and reflects on the relationship between literature and politics.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-10-17
President Roosevelt writes that at 11 am tomorrow, weather permitting, he will await “sad, bad, mad” little Eva.
Massachusetts Historical Society
1903-12-21
President Roosevelt references his previous letter in which he incorrectly attributed a quote to Algernon Charles Swinburne instead of Robert Browning, and says that Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt triumphed in the letter recipient’s “superior literary acumen.”
Massachusetts Historical Society
1903-12-21
Theodore Roosevelt appreciates the beautiful volumes sent by the Meyers. The Browning is a better edition than what Roosevelt has.
Massachusetts Historical Society
1909-01-09
In his article for Ladies’ Home Journal, Theodore Roosevelt describes the benefits of reading and provides advice on how to get people of any age interested in reading “serious literature.” Roosevelt elaborates on his reading habits and book selection processes, which stem from both his current mood and educational desires.
1915-04
President Roosevelt responds to Robert Grant’s letter of August 30, 1905, regarding a doctor, gives him his literary opinion on Captain Craig, and briefly comments on diplomatic affairs with the Japanese.
1905-09-02
Martha Baker Dunn thanks President Roosevelt for the letter and shares her thoughts concerning Robert Browning and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-09-15