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Amazing correspondence b/t Theo. Roosevelt & naturalist & author Leo Miller
Amazing correspondence b/t Theo. Roosevelt & naturalist & author Leo Miller
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Description:

Roosevelt Theodore 1858 - 1919 Remarkable correspondence between Theodore Roosevelt and naturalist and author Leo E. Miller: a veteran of the infamous 1913-1914 South American expedition that nearly killed the former President. Roosevelt pulled strings to get Miller his first published work, In The Wilds of South America(1918).



A substantial and important archive of papers and books belonging to Leo E. Miller (1887 - 1952), a naturalist and explorer who accompanied Theodore Roosevelt on the Roosevelt - Rondon Scientific Expedition of 1913 - 1914, which explored the 1000 mile longRio da Duvida (River of Doubt), later renamed Rio Roosevelt in the Brazilian Amazon. The archive consists of Miller's retained correspondence of approximately 23 letters - correspondents include Theodore Roosevelt (1858 - 1919), 2 Autograph Letters Signed, January 28 and April 26, 1917, 4 Typed Letters Signed, November 4, 1914 to December 7, 1917, Theodore Roosevelt, III (1887 - 1944), 5 Typed Letters Signed, February 20, 1934 to January 9, 1936; Kermit Roosevelt (1889 - 1943), 2 Autograph Letters Signed and 4 Typed Letters Signed, February 2, 1916 to May 13, 1938 and Paul Cutright, author of Theodore Roosevelt: Naturalist and Outdoorsman (1959), 1 Autograph Letter Signed and 4 Typed Letters Signed, May 12, 1943 to January 1, 1956, together with editions of six of his books; an original 5.25" x 3.25" silver gelatin print of identified members of the South American expedition; as well as an enlarged copy print of the same; a scrapbook of newspaper clippings of Leo Miller's accomplishments; and lecture broadsides. Some mat burn to two of the Roosevelt letters, Typed Letters Signed by Roosevelt mounted, typical mailing folds, else very good condition overall. Also included is an incredible African necklace, probably owned and gifted by Roosevelt himself.


Miller, born in Huntingburg, Indiana, first travelled to South America in March 1911 as the youngest member of a three man expedition to Columbia led by the ornithologists Frank Chapman and Louis Agassiz Fuertes. The novice naturalist so impressed Chapman that he was selected as the American Museum of Natural History's representative for the 1913 - 1914.

Weary from politics and thirsty for danger, Theodore Roosevelt sought adventure to escape his failures of the 1912 election. After a safari in Africa, he looked towards South America and a treacherous, unpredictable waterway aptly named the Rio da Duvida.Death on the scientific crusade was a very real possibility. Many of Roosevelt's friends fretted over his safety. Laughing in the face of peril he replied, "I have already lived and enjoyed as much of life as any nine other men I know; I have had my full share, and if it necessary for me to leave my bones in South America, I am quite prepared to do so." His chortles silenced when the voyage shifted from a confident trek to a harrowing journey. In Candice Miller's book River of Doubt (2005) she explains, "Compared with the creatures of the Amazon, including the Indians whose territory they were invading, they were all - from the lowliest camarada to the former president of the United States - clumsy, conspicuous prey."

Miller accompanied Theodore Roosevelt on the first leg of the expedition into the southern Amazonian basin. When the party arrived at the Rio da Duvida, the party split into two in order to conserve supplies. Roosevelt, together with his son Kermit, and several others descended the river toward the Amazon while Miller travelled the Rio Ji-ParanÍ_ to the Rio Madeira. While Miller arrived at Manaos, at the confluence of the Rio Negro and Amazon. Roosevelt's journey down the River of Doubt took several more harrowing weeks in which the former President suffered a leg owound that became infected, leaving him weak from illness. ("Left Roosevelt Well," New York Times, April 9, 1914, 1; "Roosevelt Starts Down the Amazon, Leg Wound..." Ibid, May 2, 1914, 9).

Roosevelt encourages a young author

Following his arrival in New York, and some recuperation in Oyster Bay, Roosevelt began work on his history of the expedition, Through the Brazilian Wilderness, which Scribner's published in the fall of 1914. Meanwhile, Miller continued his field work, making several more trips to South America, collecting specimens for the American Museum of Natural History. Writing on November 14, 1914 in a typed letter, he encourages Miller to write his own memoir of his South American travels, and offers to make an introduction to Scribner's: "I have received your note too late to answer before you had left. I hope this will be sent to you. I shall be very much pleased to have the Saki named after me, and I am even more pleased to learn how many new things we got in the mammal collection. It is fine! And, I am sure, you will do even better now. I am also very much pleased that you think you will be able to publish your Tales in book form. Send me a copy of the Cock-a-della Rocky article, as soon as you can, and I will submit it to Scribner's. Give my warm regards to Messrs. Huxley and Gibbon. I cannot help but wish that I was along."

Miller continued his ornithological work, undertaking another expedition to South America from May 1916 to September 1917 financed by Roosevelt who put up $5,000 and continuing in south America through with stops in Bolivia, Panama, Ecuador, Peru and Argentina. During his stay in South America, Roosevelt wrote again to his "dear Miller" informing him that "I have just received your letter; and, as soon as I got it, I wrote off the introductory note to Scribner's. I am immensely pleased, as I think I wrote you. You must have had a most interesting trip. By George, those maribundi wasps are serious menaces to the health and life! When you are in the lowlands, do keep a lookout for the giant anaconda...[the American Museum of Natural History] have never yet gotten the skin or the skeleton of one. Let me know, of course, as soon as you return to the United States."

Roosevelt's influence on Scribner's proved strong enough to get Miller a publishing contract, and in light of the fact that he would cover his role in the Roosevelt-Rondon Expedition, the former President was given advance drafts for comment. In January 1917, Colonel Roosevelt shot off a short hand-written note to Miller writing that the thought the forthcoming "book will be rather first rate; I am greatly pleased with it. I have a small suggestion to make about the preface, Now, will you come in to the Langdon Hotel at 9.30 next Thursday morning, and we'll go to Scribner's afterwards?"

Several months later the United States declared War on the Central Powers, entering the First World War. Miller, hoping to obtain an officer's commission, used his connections to his favor. On April 26, 1917, Roosevelt wrote a hand-written letter of recommendation to "The examining Board for the Officers Reserve Training Camp," writing, "I know Mr Leo Miller intimately; he went through my South American Exploring trip with me He is a gentleman of high character; a college bred man of scholarly attainment; and a particularly daring, resourceful and energetic man, experienced in handling men, cool-headed in emergency, accustomed to danger. If I had troops to command I would be very glad to have him hold a commission under me." Likely in part due to Roosevelt's influence, Miller obtained a lieutenant's commission in the Army Air Service as an observer ("Two Airplanes Reach City of Fayetteville on Trip," Wilmington Morning Star, N.C., December 20, 1918). Roosevelt offered his congratulations in a Typed Letters Signed on December 7, 1917: "I am delighted that you got the Lieutenancy. Kermit will be as pleased as I am. I Shall write him at once. Cherry, Fiala and I have been exchanging congratulations over it."

After the War

Following the war, Miller continued writing for Scribner's publishing The Hidden People (1920); In the Tiger's Lair (1921); The Black Phantom (1922); Adrift on the Amazon (1923); and The Jungle Pirates (1925). He settled in Stratford, Connecticut and took work as a chemical salesman (1930 US Census).

Miller remained in contact with both Kermit and Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. on occasion in later years. Kermit, who travelled to South America with his father and Miller in 1913, kept in touch, first during Roosevelt's tenure in Buenos Aires in 1916 and later in the 30s when the two occasionally met for social functions. In the early 1930s Theodore, Jr., then Chairman of American Express, asked Miller if he could suggest ideas for a summer tour for his son Cornelius V.S. Roosevelt (1915 - 1991), cautioning that he had limited options due to financial constraints, admitting, "The Roosevelt family never has been rich, and" in the midst of the Great Depression, "is poorer now than ordinarily."

The archive also includes several letters from Paul R. Cutright, a professor at Beaver College in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, and author of Theodore Roosevelt: Naturalist and Ourdoorsman. Cutright apparently interviewed Miller for his research around 1943. Cutright's book was not published until after Miller's death. Miller's 1955 note announcing a publisher elicited a response from Miller's widow, which was subsequently answered with a heartfelt letter of apology and condolence.

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