Your TR Source
Theodore Roosevelt introduces Charles DeKay as someone he has known for a long time and believes is a fine man. Roosevelt does not know what DeKay wishes to discuss with the recipient, but hopes DeKay will be treated with courtesy and consideration.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-12-15
President Roosevelt praises a sonnet sent by Maurice Francis Egan and writes that he will enclose it in a letter to former Secretary of State John Hay’s widow. Roosevelt also informs Egan that he has promised Richard Watson Gilder that he will write an article on Celtic literature for The Century Magazine.
1905-07-11
President Roosevelt agrees with Century Magazine editors Robert Underwood Johnson and Richard Watson Gilder that it is best not to publish the article until after the election in November.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-08-27
Charles N. Elliot sends Theodore Roosevelt John Burroughs’ book about his Western trip with Roosevelt and requests that Roosevelt write a brief appreciation of the author for inclusion.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-09-14
Lloyd Carpenter Griscom tells President Roosevelt that Professor Archibald Cary Coolidge is doing very good work in Paris, where he is meeting and discussing matters with French intellectuals. The French have felt a lack of “intellectual intimacy” with the United States, and Coolidge is doing “semi-diplomatic work” during his lectureship there.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-03-05
Nicholas Murray Butler updates President Roosevelt on the progress being made to establish the Association for International Conciliation, with funding from Andrew Carnegie. The peace work of the association is to be done as quietly as possible and in accordance with the wishes of Roosevelt and Secretary of State Elihu Root. In addition, Butler offers Roosevelt his support in regard to the Brownsville affair and encourages Roosevelt to keep up a “stiff front” to the “Senate oligarchy.” Butler also shares his observations regarding how railroad officials are trying to make the new railroad rate law unpopular, but concludes that, despite challenges, the law will succeed in the end.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-21
Frank Hall Scott, President of the Century Company, informs President Roosevelt about the progress in negotiating copyright royalties with Dr. Max Kullnick for a German translation of the illustrated edition of Roosevelt’s Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-11
Nicholas Murray Butler sends an article about tariff reform. Richard Watson Gilder wants Butler to write an article about President Roosevelt for the Century magazine. Butler asks Roosevelt’s permission to write it. Butler would use a conversation he and Roosevelt had about the books “busy men” should read as the basis of the article.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-12-01
President Roosevelt saw William Garrott Brown’s letter through Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, and thanks Brown for writing. Roosevelt does not mind people being mistaken about him, so long as it is not on purpose and malicious. One reason Roosevelt had felt indignant at first was because he had read and appreciated Brown’s works, and felt that he was the sort of Southerner that he wanted to represent. Roosevelt would like to meet Brown in person, if it is possible for him to come to Washington, D.C.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-12-05
President Roosevelt encloses a letter which explains itself. He thinks that both he and Collier’s should be careful not to do anything that could be accused of having “the slightest taint of sham,” and thinks they should ask the four officers of the American Historical Association to investigate the matter.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-05-11
President Roosevelt thanks Richard Watson Gilder for his book of poetry, The Fire Divine.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-12-07
President Roosevelt had recently finished Owen Wister’s book Lady Baltimore, and sends Wister his thoughts and criticisms of the work. While he enjoyed the story, Roosevelt believes the book is unfairly critical of northerners and uncritical of southerners. Similarly, Roosevelt points out that while the book lauds the past at the expense of the present, there are many examples of violence, brutality, greed, and other vices in the past. Roosevelt also remarks on the status of African-Americans, and while he agrees with Wister in certain regards, believes the work has gone too far in the racist stereotypes. He hopes that Wister will be able to visit him soon. In a postscript, Roosevelt mentions a number of other books he has read or is reading that similarly make readers “feel that there is no use of trying to reform anything because everything is so rotten that the whole social structure should either be let alone or destroyed.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-27
President Roosevelt sends Senator Lodge a pair of letters that he thinks Lodge and his wife, Anna Cabot Mills Lodge, may be amused by.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-25
President Roosevelt congratulates George Haven Putnam on restarting Putnam’s Magazine. Roosevelt does not think he can write an article for it, but would be pleased to have a speech of his appear in the magazine.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-13
Amanda Theodocia Jones sends Theodore Roosevelt a poem for publication in The Outlook. She includes a clipping verifying she is “not without standing as a writer.” In the clipping, Richard Watson Gilder, editor of Century Magazine, praises Jones’ poetry and is glad they will be published.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-08-13
Helena de Kay Gilder is about to prepare a collected volume of the papers of her late husband, Richard Watson Gilder, and wonders if Theodore Roosevelt has any letters from Gilder that he would allow her to see.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-03-24
William Bailey Howland is irritated that William Howe Tolman attempted to capitalize on President Roosevelt’s affiliation with The Outlook by requesting the Legion of Honor for Howland. Howland recalls that Tolman requested the same award earlier for Carroll D. Wright, Richard Watson Gilder, Percy Stickney Grant, and Howland for their work with the American Institute of Social Service. Although Howland was ultimately not awarded a Legion of Honor, he believed that the matter was resolved years ago and is upset that Tolman pursued the same request again.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1909-02-20
Alma Curtin thanks President Roosevelt for his offer to mention her manuscript to publishing houses in order to have them read it and judge the work on its merits. Curtin had thought of sending the manuscript to either the Century Magazine or Charles Scribner’s Sons, and would welcome a word from Roosevelt to either publishing house.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-12-07
Charles Sprague Smith spoke with Nicholas Murray Butler, and thinks Charles Evans Hughes’s campaign for governor of New York is in good shape. They tried to enlist Jacob A. Riis’s help, but he is unwilling to help due to a newspaper attack on his friend Richard Watson Gilder. Smith also believes that the Republicans should enlist the help of rabbis to help convince Jewish voters.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-10-29
C. Grant La Farge discusses his plans to visit President Roosevelt at his “well-known sporting resort” and banters about the tennis matches they will play. La Farge jokes with Roosevelt about his participation in the simplified spelling movement, or “Theodore defying the Dictionary,” and shares a comical poem he has written about the matter.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-08-30