Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616

President Roosevelt holds two revolvers and fires at a dictionary, which has a variety of holes in it. Beside him is “amunishon from A. Carnege Skidoo Castel” and a bouquet “from the Simplified Spelling Board.” Ghosts of Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, and Samuel Johnson come out of the dictionary. Caption: “What Mr. Roosevelt means is to scrap the English language. He is a patriot, not a pottering philologist.”—The London “Saturday Review.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-09-22

Richard Croker, as the Tammany Tiger dressed as a cardinal in England, receives long distance news about an explosive “Tammany Investigation” in New York. Caption: Croker Wolsey. — I have touched the highest point of all my greatness, / And, from that full meridian of my glory, / I haste now to my setting. I shall fall / Like a bright exhalation in the evening, / And no man see me more. [Shakespeare, Henry VIII, act 3, scene 2].

comments and context

Comments and Context

The “boss” of Tammany Hall, the corrupt Democratic machine in New York City at this time was Richard Croker. Irish-born, he returned to Great Britain and Ireland at the time of this cartoon when things went against his plans and control in New York. He fought with the national party about support of William Jennings Bryan, his involvement, including stock kickbacks, with the Ice Trust as a blistering summer heat-wave struck, and loss of his iron grip of precincts, all paved his retreat. Nominally he looked after stables of prized race horses, and he ran his affairs by cable, but soon retired from politics when investigations were launched. The cardinal’s cassock and other vestments are to maintain the relevance of the Shakespearean analogy; Croker was a Protestant until shortly before his death.  

Theodore Roosevelt is delighted with what Ambassador Jusserand said about Shakespeare. He asks if Jusserand saw his editorial in which he quotes Emile Boutrox and sends a copy.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-12-05

Theodore Roosevelt thanks Joel Elias Spingarn for the volumes of poetry Spingarn sent him. Roosevelt also agrees with Spingarn about the “silly and pedantic” nature of “‘new criticism'” of art.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-12-18

President Roosevelt instructs John T. Loomis to remove some books and substitute some others in the collection of works that he plans to bring with him on his African safari. Roosevelt would like all the books to be bound in pigskin, to better protect them on the journey.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-11-26

President Roosevelt would prefer his books to be bound in pig skin rather than cloth, but tells John T. Loomis to prioritize weight over everything else. He asks Loomis to find a better set of selections from Edgar Allan Poe, as he does not care for the notes, introduction, and pictures. He also returns other books for Loomis to bind, including three Shakespeare volumes. He asks Loomis to let him know the total weight.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-11-24

President Roosevelt writes to J. M. Hoppin to say that he enjoyed Hoppin’s book on Shakespeare during his recent western trip.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-10-25

President Roosevelt asks John R. Carter to thank the British and Foreign Sailors Society for the “Victory” plaque. He also asks Carter to thank the authorities at Oxford for the five supplemental volumes of the Oxford reproductions of Shakespeare’s works that were not in the first folio.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-12-26

Theodore Roosevelt writes to Anna Roosevelt Cowles about initiating Paul Morton and Victor Howard Metcalf, new members of his Cabinet, with a scramble in Rock Creek Park. Roosevelt and Edith are having a “really lovely time in Washington.” They breakfast on the portico and walk in the garden. In Oyster Bay, Edith also reads Shakespeare’s King John out loud with Ethel and Ted. Roosevelt does not know what will happen in the election.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-07-30

President Roosevelt thanks D. B. Monro for the reproduction of the first Shakespeare folio.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-01-20

Henry Bowers has previously shared his plan for literature reform and wants someone to recognize and take it up. He discusses how writers have unrestricted freedom to suggest and teach anything, not just mere obscenity of language but obscenity of immoral thought. Bowers suggests forming a committee of censors who judge and certify materials. The process is not compulsory and does not restrict circulation.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-08-22

Marie Corelli has led an effort to rescue and restore the childhood home of John Harvard’s mother Katherine in Stratford-on-Avon, the town of William Shakespeare. The house has been gifted to Harvard University and will be officially opened in October by American Ambassador Whitelaw Reid. She invites Theodore Roosevelt to also attend the ceremony.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-09-01

John T. Loomis sends one of the best selected editions of Edgar Allan Poe’s tales for President Roosevelt to examine. He discusses the different volumes and selections of other books that Roosevelt might want. The total weight of the books as they currently are is roughly 55 and a half pounds. Loomis hopes to reduce this weight by trimming the edges of some volumes. He asks Roosevelt which he should trim, and whether he wants all the books bound in pigskin.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-11-25

John St. Loe Strachey thanks President Roosevelt for his letter, with which he agrees. Strachey does not understand how people think civil liberties do not need protecting. He worries that autocrats like Napoleon will feed on people’s unwillingness to stand up for what is right. Strachey hopes that they will meet again in October when he visits.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-09-21

Ambassador Reid tells President Roosevelt about a recent meeting between William Jennings Bryan and King Edward VII, as well as the general attitude toward Bryan among Englishmen after a series of speeches he gave in London. Reid also mentions that he will be sending a report on a conversation he had with Sir Edward Grey about a notice sent to Russia of England’s desire to have “a reduction of armaments made a subject for the next Hague Conference.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-07-27

Historian and scholar Thomas Lounsbury tells President Roosevelt that, generally speaking, uneducated people behave and think poorly–especially if they do not think well of the Presidents’ policies and motives. Lounsbury also discusses Shakespeare and some books Roosevelt sent him.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-07-11

Ambassador Reid writes to Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt about events in England following news of the death of Secretary of State John Hay, including the Fourth of July reception held by the embassy there. Reid shares information about the Kings of England and Spain and hopes that she will share the news with President Roosevelt. Reid also expresses some nervousness about speeches being printed verbatim in Europe, and remarks about the volume of speeches he is asked to give. He includes several songs that were sung at gatherings he attended.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-07-10

Postcard showing Poets Corner in Westminster Abbey. Charles C. Myers notes the statues represent notable men, but the individuals are not buried in the Abbey. Myers lists several of the men who have statues in this corner of the Abbey.

Comments and Context

In Charles C. Myers’s own words, “Here is one view of the Poets corner in the Abbey and in this corner are statues erected to the memory of noted men who are buried elsewhere than in the Abbey. Some of these are, Joseph Addison, Lord McCauley, Thackery, Shakespeare, Robt. Burns and others.”

Collection

Charles C. Myers Collection

Wallace Finley Dailey presents an exhibit, “Roosevelt Reading: The Pigskin Library, 1909-1910,” that opened at Harvard University in September 2003. Dailey provides an introduction to the exhibit which consists of photographs, excerpts of letters, and illustrations of the numerous pigskin bound volumes that Theodore Roosevelt took with him on his African safari. The exhibit is divided into three parts: “Classics and the Continent,” History and Romance,” and “Americans.” Many of the book illustrations have captions taken from letters or articles written by Roosevelt that comment on the book and its author. 

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

2013

Art Koch reveals the subjects and context of the second “TR-era image” which features Theodore Roosevelt with fellow hunters near Glenwood Springs, Colorado, in the spring of 1905. Koch notes that one of the subjects in the picture had her head erased by the photographer under direction of Roosevelt who was offended that she had intruded herself among his hunting companions. The third image features a cartoon of Roosevelt shooting at a dictionary with two revolvers while the ghosts of three famous writers hover over the dictionary.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1905