Your TR Source
President Roosevelt finds the letters sent by William T. Hornaday to be interesting and has never seen anything like it, but doubts their veracity due to the connection with W. J. Long.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-09-12
President Roosevelt tells Caspar Whitney, editor of Outing Magazine, that his name should have been on the “roll of honor,” a mistake Roosevelt plans to rectify in his next volume of speeches and messages. Roosevelt also explains that his statements about naturalist William J. Long appeared in Everybody’s Magazine because the reporter feels as strongly about the material as Roosevelt himself. The president notes that other magazines are “old friends,” but Whitney has no idea of the requests he receives to write articles in magazines.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-09-07
President Roosevelt sends Ernest Hamlin Abbott, and the Abbott family as a whole, an advanced copy of Caspar Whitney’s upcoming article on nature-fakers for The Outing. Roosevelt wants the family to review it, so they understand “not to lend the weight of names . . . to help a noxious impostor.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-08-23
President Roosevelt agrees with Caspar Whitney that “it is intensely irritating to be obliged to make a serious argument against a creature” like William J. Long, but says he felt compelled to do so.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-08-14
President Roosevelt greatly appreciates District Attorney Stimson’s letter. While Roosevelt finds parts of naturalist William J. Long’s book charming, on the whole, he remarks on “what a shame it is that a man who has that charming touch should spoil it by writing such utter nonsense.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-08-14
President Roosevelt thanks Robert Williams Wood for the copy of his book, and thanks him for his comment on the work of naturalist William J. Long and other “nature fakers.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-08-02
President Roosevelt tells Frank M. Chapman about a yellow-throated warbler he recently shot, and invites him to come visit next spring when the birds are here. Roosevelt appreciated Chapman’s editorial in Bird Lore regarding the nature fakers controversy and laments that people like The Outlook editor Lyman Abbott are accepting the stories of William J. Long and other fakers.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-07-26
President Roosevelt again encourages Caspar Whitney to consult George Shiras before he publishes an extract of Shiras’s comments on the nature fakers controversy.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-07-23
President Roosevelt informs George Shiras that he has quoted a few lines of Shiras’s letter in his article against the “nature fakers” for Everybody’s.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-07-23
President Roosevelt suggests to Caspar Whitney that he write directly to George Shiras before using his comments.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-07-22
President Roosevelt comments on the latest episode in the “nature fakers controversy” and asks George Shiras to write an article on it. He invites Shiras to spend a night at Sagamore Hill.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-07-22
Theodore Roosevelt would be glad to have a book made of the Yellowstone sketch. Roosevelt cut the clover quickly and was not thinking about nests until afterward. Roosevelt asks Burroughs if he has Chapman’s book on the warblers. Roosevelt feels that he has become “a little like a nature faker myself.” He is interested in a chipmunk that crosses the tennis court during games.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-07-19
John M. Phillips appreciates the pamphlet on “Concealing Coloration in Birds and Mammals” sent by Theodore Roosevelt and thinks it is a valuable contribution to the scientific field. He denigrates Abbott Handerson Thayer’s views on camouflage and is glad that Roosevelt will be writing a letter to the editor of The Open. He also appreciated Roosevelt’s words against William J. Long’s fake natural history.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-09-16
Journalist Edward B. Clark forwards to President Roosevelt a copy of naturalist William J. Long’s book Northern Trails. Clark would like Roosevelt’s estimate of the accuracy of Long’s portrayal of the “white wolf tale.” He apologizes for having taken up so much of Roosevelt’s time already. Clark promises to send Roosevelt the magazine article after it is written.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-02-06
John Burroughs thanks President Roosevelt for his suggestions and writes about his Cosmopolitan article on animal intelligence. He also discusses his dislike of William J. Long’s depictions of animals.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-06-09
President Roosevelt eats dinner with several men dressed in country attire with knives and pistols. The main course is a bear, placed at the center of the table. In the background, another bear peers into the room, “Gee! No faking there.” William Loeb hides underneath the table. A picture frame with the words “Dr. Long” is hung on the wall.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-12-07
President Roosevelt celebrates his forty-ninth birthday with a variety of friends. In the upper left hand corner at the piano are New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes and Thomas Fortune Ryan singing, “Oh let us be joyful.” Booker T. Washington tells Henry Watterson, “Henry, I hope you’ll come down and visit me at Tuskegee.” Senator Joseph Benson Foraker says to Secretary of War William H. Taft, “I heard a good story today, Will.” Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon and Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks look at a picture of George Washington, and Fairbanks says, “That picture makes me sad. It reminds me of cherries.” William Randolph Hearst, James Roscoe Day, and Secretary of State Elihu Root look at a book of “Snapshots in New York.” William Jennings Bryan and Grover Cleveland play a game of checkers, and Bryan says, “After you, Grover.” J. Pierpont Morgan watches over the game with his hand on Bryan’s back. Henry Huttleston Rogers, F. Augustus Heinze, and Thomas William Lawson sit together. Lawson says, “Rogers, my boy, you must come over to Boston and visit me.” John D. Rockefeller points at Kenesaw Mountain Landis’s chest while President Roosevelt presents a bouquet to James J. Hill as William J. Long looks on. Finally, James T. Harahan, Edward Henry Harriman, and Stuyvesant Fish read “Snap Shots Along the Illinois Central.” Harriman remarks, “Very nice album, Stuyvesant, is it not?”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-10-27
Theodore Roosevelt notes that he and John Burroughs have fought side by side against diverse kinds of “nature fakers.” Roosevelt sends Burroughs an article that he wrote partly in response to Abbott Thayer’s article in Popular Science Monthly. Roosevelt believes that Thayer may be more dangerous than William J. Long, because Thayer is so much more plausible.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-08-15
President Roosevelt thanks Stewart Edward White for sending him two books. Roosevelt is particularly excited to read White’s novel Arizona Nights, and compares White’s writing favorably to the author William J. Long, who was embroiled in the “Nature Fakers” controversy. Roosevelt has also requested that White be given permission to watch target practice by the USS Maryland.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-11-18
President Roosevelt approves the use of a portion of a manuscript by George Shiras about wolves for publication in The Outing Magazine. Roosevelt reminds Caspar Whitney to use the excerpt as a repudiation of William J. Long’s writings.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-07-16