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Sylvia

“Such loveliness of line and tinting … such sweet courtesy of manner.”
Martha Bulloch Roosevelt at twenty-two
.( Illustration p1.1 )



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

    B EFORE LISTING THOSE WHO HAVE CONTRIBUTED in various ways to the writing of this biography, I must single out a few names for special mention. Dr. John Allen Gable, Executive Director of the Theodore Roosevelt Association, minutely scrutinized my manuscript, corrected errors of fact and judgment, and made no attempt to influence my interpretations of TR’s character—beyond constructing some logical arguments which I was free to accept or reject. In most cases I accepted them. Those which I rejected are nevertheless so valid that I have incorporated them in my Chapter Notes. My debt to Dr. Gable is large.
    So, too, is my debt to Joseph Kanon, who honed the manuscript with the elegant precision of a born editor. To Carleton Putnam, a man I have never met, I express gratitude and admiration for his
Theodore Roosevelt: The Formative Years
(Scribner’s, 1958), an essential source for students of TR’s youth. It is a tragedy of American biography that this grave, neglected masterpiece was never followed by other volumes. Peggy Brooks and Ann Elmo were the first to suggest, on the basis of a few articles and a screenplay, that I should write a book about TR; if the result bulks somewhat larger than the “short” work they envisioned, my thanks to them have increased proportionately.
    I also thank the following, in alphabetical order: John Alsop of Avon, Connecticut, for permission to study his valuable collection of Roosevelt and Robinson papers, now transferred to Harvard;Georges Borchardt, my agent; John C. Broderick, Chief of Manuscripts at the Library of Congress; the Hon. Alan Clark, M.P., of Saltwood Castle, Kent; Mr. Sheffield Cowles for reminiscences of his uncle TR; Barbara Dailey for hospitality to a starving, snowbound researcher in the Great Blizzard of February 1978; Wallace Dailey for his amazingly efficient work as Curator of the Theodore Roosevelt Collection at Harvard, not to mention his performances of Bach after hours; the late Mrs. Ethel Roosevelt Derby, TR’s younger daughter; the European-American Bank, for not blanching at the sight of the word “Writer” on a loan application form; John J. Geoghegan, my publisher, for his patience and generosity; Kathleen Jacklin, Archivist of the Cornell University Libraries; Peter Lacey,
artiorum patronus;
Mrs. Alice Roosevelt Longworth, TR’s elder daughter, for contributing many bright fragments of memory to the mosaic of my Prologue; Linda and Noel Rae, for the use of a peaceful house in the country; Larry Remele, Historian/Editor of North Dakota’s excellent State Historical Society; Mr. Archibald Roosevelt, son of TR, for uncannily and unconsciously recreating TR’s smile for me; Mrs. Philip Roosevelt for showing me letters by and about Alice Lee; Mr. and Mrs. P. James Roosevelt for encouragement, advice, and hospitality; Gary Roth, Curator of Sagamore Hill National Historical Site; Guy St. Clair of the Union League Club; James Terleph, for a psychological critique of my earlier chapters; Angus Wilson for tolerantly answering yet another letter about Rudyard Kipling; and Mitchell York, a highly capable editorial assistant.
    Finally I would like to invoke the name of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, who composed the most inspiring of literary aphorisms, “Every word that you write is a blow that smites the Devil.”

BIBLIOGRAPHY
    T HIS BIBLIOGRAPHY LISTS ONLY THE MAJOR SOURCES of information and quotations in
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
. The abbreviations preceding each item will be used in the Chapter Notes below. Unpublished sources are coded in capitals, published sources in combined capitals and lower case. Thus ADA. signifies Henry Adams in manuscript, and Ada. Henry Adams in print. All other sources, including dissertations, documents, periodical articles, and minor books, will be