Your TR Source
Reporter Edward B. Clark shares with President Roosevelt the issues behind the “symposium” of the nature fakers controversy included in the upcoming publication of Everybody’s Magazine and some scientists’ responses to the editorial process.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-08-08
John O’Hara Cosgrave, of Everybody’s Magazine, sends proofs of an article about the “nature faker” controversy, which includes a piece by President Roosevelt. Cosgrave details the final form of the article and believes it will be “the last word on the subject.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-08-03
John O’Hara Cosgrave of Everybody’s Magazine sends William Loeb a proof of the issue President Roosevelt and other naturalists compiled addressing the nature fakers controversy. Cosgrave encloses a letter from Edward B. Clark explaining editing choices.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-07-30
Caspar Whitney, editor of The Outing Magazine, thanks President Roosevelt for the galley proofs by George Shiras, but wants to clarify that he can only use the parts of the text which relate to Shiras’ knowledge of wolves, which is a small portion of the full article. Whitney mentions that William J. Long is “making another effort for additional advertising.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-07-15
John O’Hara Cosgrave updates William Loeb on the article about the nature faker controversy to which President Roosevelt has contributed. The people at Everybody’s Magazine who have read Roosevelt’s contribution pronounce it “most vigorous and decisive.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-07-16
John O’Hara Cosgrave of Everybody’s Magazine tells William Loeb that a proof of the issue President Roosevelt and other naturalists compiled addressing the nature fakers controversy should reach Roosevelt soon. Cosgrave has been in contact with Roosevelt’s collaborators Edward B. Clark and Edward William Nelson, and Clark has been in contact with George Shiras regarding their contributions to the issue.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-07-25
John O’Hara Cosgrave of Everbody’s Magazine sends William Loeb a proof of the issue President Roosevelt and other naturalists compiled addressing the nature fakers controversy. Cosgrave updates Loeb on the progress of the article, which should appear in the September issue of Everybody’s.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-07-20
C. Hart Merriam thanks Theodore Roosevelt for the letter that came just as he was leaving Washington, D.C., for the west. He appreciated the information about the pigeons and the context for Shiras’ letter. Merriam also describes work that Nelson is doing to collect opinions from well known naturalists.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-07-04
Caspar Whitney shares his plan to write about the “naturalist fakirs” in The Outing with President Roosevelt, and asks Roosevelt about his experience as a naturalist for the article. Whitney also asks for information regarding John Burroughs’s experience as a naturalist.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-07-03
John Burroughs sends a copy of the paper he referred to in his last letter to Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt will be able to suggest some additions. In Lyman Abbott’s reply to Burroughs’ letter to The Outlook, Abbott kept his ground in the “nature faker” controversy.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-06-28
John Burroughs writes to Lyman Abbott, editor of The Outlook, to defend the remarks Theodore Roosevelt made about the “nature faker” controversy. Abbott wrote an editorial saying that Roosevelt made a “too sharp distinction between fiction and fact.” Burroughs believes that there is “a legitimate and an illegitimate use of the imagination in writing human history.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-06-11
Myrtle Reed sends a copy of her Book of Clever Beasts to President Roosevelt. Reed has enjoyed the recent “disturbance among the Unnaturalists,” and hopes Roosevelt finds it relaxing.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-06-06
George R. Smith relates a story to President Roosevelt in which a pack of wolves killed a deer in much the same way as William J. Long reported, creating controversy between him and Roosevelt.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-06-02
William T. Hornaday sends President Roosevelt information on works by W. J. Long. Long is a known writer on natural history, with his works used in schools. Hornaday claims the observations Long makes about the Baltimore orioles are fake, and presents a letter from witness F. G. Leslie. Hornaday also lists other naturalists who have condemned Long.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-05-29
Reverend Long, a naturalist, scolds President Roosevelt for his article “Roosevelt on Nature Fakirs” in Everybody’s Magazine. Long shames Roosevelt for slandering the writer Jack London, and contends that Roosevelt uses his prominent position in society to promote his own naturalistic views, but these views are inaccurate.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-05-22
Ellen Velvin thanks President Roosevelt for writing to her publisher and states she has not yet decided on the dedication. Velvin states she will include the information on the wolves and discusses a conversation about writing she recently had with friends.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-10
John Burroughs thanks President Roosevelt for his letter and is delighted that Roosevelt spoke candidly to William J. Long’s publisher. He wishes the general public and especially Long’s readers could see these remarks. Criticizing Long’s ideas on wolves, Burroughs notes that he will not read Long’s “preposterous book” and remarks that others view Long as “a notorious liar,” too. Burroughs’ book, Ways of Nature, will be out in October and he will send a copy to Roosevelt. Burroughs read the recently published account of Roosevelt’s bear hunt and found it “full of meat for the naturalist as well as for the sportsman.” In particular, Roosevelt’s description of human traits in animals resonated with Burroughs’ own observations.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-09-30
President Roosevelt wears an olive branch crown and rides in a chariot followed by “Trusts,” “Morgan,” “Foraker,” “Bryan,” “Rockefeller,” “Tillman,” “Harriman,” “Haskell,” “Hearst,” “Pulitzer,” “Congress,” a “stork,” “undesirable citizens,” “grafters,” “muckrakers,” and “nature fakirs.” A dove tries to escape the “peace” cage.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1909-02-07
President Roosevelt runs after a lion that he fires at while “naturalists, professors, etc.” follow behind him. Kermit Roosevelt fires a pistol while sitting on a tree branch.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-12-07
The writer of the article suggests that the author Jack London is purposely misquoting what President Roosevelt said about his book White Fang. London states that in the book, a wolf-dog kills a lynx, while Roosevelt was criticizing the idea that the lynx killed the wolf-dog. However, London omits that later in White Fang, the leader of the dog pack is torn to shreds by a lynx.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-10-17