Description:

Roosevelt Theodore



Teddy Roosevelt ALS: "I have worked like a beaver - a soiled, perspiring beaver - all summer; and I see no prospect of a let up"

 

4pp ALS inscribed overall and signed by future 26th U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) as "T.R." at the bottom of the last page. Written at Roosevelt's home at Sagamore Hill near Oyster Bay on northern Long Island  on August 31, 1895. The watermarked cream bifold stationery is embossed at the top of the first page. Expected light paper folds, else near fine. 3.875" x 6.125".

 

In full, with unchanged spelling and punctuation:

 

"Aug 31st 95

 

Dear Winty,

 

We are overjoyed at the good news; and especially that the baby is a boy; and most of all that everything went so well, and that Mrs Chanler is all right. I much appreciate your writing. I suppose you have written the Lodges, but I shall send your letter anyhow, as they will want every scrap of news about it.

 

I am much surprised about to hear that the Herberts are at Newport; I wish I could get down but it is a simple impossibility.

 

Did'not you think Dan's piece on the Evolution of the cowpuncher good?

 

Do tell Willie to adopt my suggestion of dictating his book to a good stenographer. It literally reduces the labor to one quarter, and quadruples the speed; all the mechanical part is done by the wretched minion.

 

Tell him to see me whenever he comes to New York; he must write that book.

 

I have worked like a beaver - a soiled, perspiring beaver - all summer; and I see no prospect of a let up.

 

Warm love to your wife.

 

Yours

 

T.R."

 

Teddy Roosevelt had been appointed President of the NYC Board of Police Commissioners four months earlier, in May 1895. In the 20 months remaining in his term, Roosevelt would implement sweeping policy changes that modernized the metropolitan police force. Roosevelt's schedule was indeed hectic. He proposed changes affecting everything from officer recruitment to firearms issuance, and took a hands-on approach that often included surprise nighttime inspections of beat cops.

 

Roosevelt's correspondent "Winty" was fellow New Yorker and Harvard graduate Winthrop Astor Chanler (1863-1926). Winty and his ten siblings were known as the "Astor Orphans" following the deaths of both parents by 1877. The Chanler children, though parentless, were financially independent and well connected to many prestigious Knickerbocker families. Winty, as was wife Margaret Louisa Terry (1862-1952), were both members of the 400. In the letter, Roosevelt extended his congratulations upon the birth of the couple's fifth child and only surviving son Marion Winthrop Chanler (1895-1931), who had been born a week earlier on August 24th. (Sadly, Marion would later drown in a Plympton, Massachusetts pond at age 35.)

 

Roosevelt also refers to Winty's younger brother William Astor Chanler (1867-1934) as "Willie." The younger Chanler brother was a businessman, politician, and writer that would become famous for exploratory trips through Asia, Africa, and South America. Roosevelt's suggestion to hire a stenographer came from his ample personal experience. By 1895, Roosevelt had already published over 10 books, ranging in subject from political history to memoir. Roosevelt would continue writing and publishing until his death.

 

Roosevelt's interest in the American West, first sparked by his trek to the Dakota Territory in the 1880s, is alluded to on the third page. "The Evolution of A Cowpuncher" was an article written by Roosevelt's friend Owen Wister (1860-1938) that would appear in the next month's issue of Harper's Monthly (September 1895). Wister would continue developing Western literature as a genre; in 1902, he published his most famous novel, The Virginian.

 

A terrific letter written by Police Commissioner Roosevelt, filled with copious references to personal relationships, his work, and his love of the Wild West!

 



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