French literature--Translations into English

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

The Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal presents a 1905 booklet, Theodore Roosevelt, written by the French scholar Leon Bazalgette and translated by Roosevelt biographer Edmund Morris. Bazalgette composed the booklet as an “examination of the works of Theodore Roosevelt,” and he divides Roosevelt’s books into three categories: history, politics, and nature. Bazalgette examines numerous works in each category, and he explains how the books and writings reflect the thoughts and beliefs of Roosevelt. Bazalgette asserts that Roosevelt’s time in the West as a cowboy was the most important period of his life, and he admits that he likes Roosevelt’s writings from and about this period and place the best. Bazalgette quotes extensively from Roosevelt’s western trilogy, and he highlights passages Roosevelt wrote about bird songs.

The translation of the booklet is followed by a brief biography of Bazalgette written by Morris, along with a list of Roosevelt books cited by Bazalgette. Two text boxes at the conclusion of the work list the mission and vision statements of the Theodore Roosevelt Association (TRA) along with a listing of its social media platforms.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

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