Your TR Source
Theodore Roosevelt thanks William K. Bixby for the volumes of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s notebooks and looks forward to receiving them.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-11-04
President Roosevelt is very glad that there is an effort underway to preserve the house in Rome where John Keats died. He tells Robert Underwood Johnson that he thinks it would be appropriate to buy the house and establish a memorial to Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-01-05
President Roosevelt thanks Justice Holmes for sending him a copy of a biography written by President Charles William Eliot of Harvard (probably John Gilley: Maine Farmer and Fisherman) and thinks that in time it may be considered a classic. Roosevelt reflects on Eliot’s message of how people are remembered after their deaths and for how long. Roosevelt thinks that ultimately it is best for a person to feel internally that they lived honorably and did not shirk any duties, regardless of how long civilization as a whole remembers them.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-12-05
William K. Bixby sends Theodore Roosevelt three edited volumes of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s notebooks.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-10-31
In his previous letter, Whitelaw Reid mistook the “really admirable edition by Houghton, Mifflin & Co.” It is really a Shelley edition, not a Swinburne. Reid wishes to correct his mistake immediately.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-10-12
Chronology of the daily life of Theodore Roosevelt between January 1879 to December 1883. Notable events include Theodore Roosevelt’s engagement and marriage to Alice Hathaway Lee, his appointment to the New York State Legislature, and his first visit and buffalo hunt in North Dakota.
Theodore Roosevelt Association
1985
President Roosevelt tells Justice Holmes that he likes the book written by Charles William Eliot, the President of Harvard, and he wishes that Eliot could write more biographies of everyday Americans. Roosevelt also offers his thoughts on how people will be remembered once they have died. Roosevelt says some may be able to attain a degree of pleasure before they die knowing that those close to them will fondly remember them.
Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal
1904-12-05
Tweed Roosevelt describes the arduous process of removing an obelisk named Cleopatra’s Needle from Egypt to New York City. The project was planned and managed by Henry H. Gorringe who persuaded Theodore Roosevelt to hunt buffalo in Dakota Territory in the fall of 1883. Roosevelt explains how obelisks were constructed in ancient Egypt, and he provides a history of the two obelisks known as Cleopatra’s Needles, one of which was moved to London, England. Roosevelt details the process of moving the obelisk which included specialized rigging and lifting mechanisms, and he laments that the obelisk’s presence in New York City is virtually unknown because of its location behind buildings of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Six photographs and seven illustrations, including seven depictions of the obelisk, populate the text along with a text box with poem “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley.
In his article for Ladies’ Home Journal, Theodore Roosevelt describes the benefits of reading and provides advice on how to get people of any age interested in reading “serious literature.” Roosevelt elaborates on his reading habits and book selection processes, which stem from both his current mood and educational desires.
1915-04