Your TR Source
Ambassador to Great Britain Reid updates President Roosevelt on various matters, including poet Algernon Charles Swinburne and his “suppressed” poem, the Newfoundland modus vivendi, and happenings in Parliament. Reid also details how he “warded off…the offer of some brand-new territory and responsibilities” in Nicaragua.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-08-28
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
If Amos Pinchot speaks on “Big Business,” the name of the club should be changed to “The Twilight Sleep Club.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1915-02-05
Theodore Roosevelt thanks Emily V. Hammond for the book of poetry by Angela Morgan. He appreciates the poetry as well as Hammond’s thoughtfulness.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1914-12-16
President Roosevelt is astonished to learn that in 1827 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe predicted both the construction of the Panama Canal and that the United States would build it.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-10-28
President Roosevelt tells his son Kermit Roosevelt that he feels bad about a patronizing remark he made about the poet Madison Julius Cawein, who just had lunch with him. He also discusses Edwin Arlington Robinson’s poems. Roosevelt had Admiral Prince Louis of Battenberg and his nephew Prince Alexander to dinner, where he sat Louis next to Secretary of the Navy Charles J. Bonaparte. This amused Roosevelt, as Bonaparte is a grand-nephew of Napoleon I, and Battenberg is a grandson of a Hessian general who served under, and then deserted, Napoleon.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-11-06
President Roosevelt likes the book of verse, as well as Brander Matthews’s introduction. He feels that H. C. Bunner’s death was a real loss.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-03-20
President Roosevelt thanks Mrs. Ingalls for the copy of her husband’s poem.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-11-28
William K. Bixby sends Theodore Roosevelt three edited volumes of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s notebooks.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-10-31
Sinclair Lewis asks Theodore Roosevelt to provide a note to James Brown Scott approving the application to the Carnegie Peace Fund to bring British peace poet Alfred Noyes on a lecture tour of the United States.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-04-22
Walter Littlefield reminds Theodore Roosevelt that last week he sent a note to Oyster Bay asking him to list the four greatest poets in the world in order of renown. Littlefield tells Roosevelt that he included a stamped envelope and hopes he will reply. In a postscript, Littlefield notes with delight the editorials complaining about the state of affairs in Albany.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-02-07
Walter Littlefield asks Theodore Roosevelt to rank the four greatest poets in the world.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-01-31
Robert Frost recalls Theodore Roosevelt’s friendship with the poet Edwin Arlington Robinson, and the interest he took in helping Robinson be able to devote his time to poetry. Roosevelt was a fan of poetry, and a good president.
Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal
1992
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
Print shows Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing left, on oval frame, with two female figures offering crowns of laurel labeled “Europe” and “America.” Above is an angel spreading her wings above figures from Longfellow’s poems. At bottom left is a poem in tribute to Longfellow.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1882-05-03