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What did Teddy Read?

Aug5

“And it’s likely that no president will ever match the Rough Rider himself, who charged through multiple books in a single day and wrote more than a dozen well-regarded works, on topics ranging from the War of 1812 to the American West.” ~For Obama and past presidents, the books they read shape policies and perceptions by Trevi Troy, April 18 2010, The Washington Post

I’ve read about U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt in at least three separate books, and these are just a few of the works I’ve seen on his reading list:

Plays:
Aechylus’ Orestean trilogy.
Seven Against Thebes by Sophocles.
Hippolytus and Bacchae by Euripides.
Frogs by Aristophanes.
Shakespeare: Macbeth, Twelfth Night, Henry IV, Henry V, Richard II,

Novels:
The Heir of Redclyffe by
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe.
The Boy Hunters by Captain Reid
The Hunters’ Feast by Captain Reid.
The Scalp Hunters by Captain Reid.
The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper.
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.
Sebastopol Sketches by Leo Tolstoy.
The Cossacks by Leo Tolstoy.
With Fire and Sword (Polish: Ogniem i mieczem) by Henryk Sienkiewicz. (I want to read this classic historical novel of 17th century Poland.)
In the Sargasso Sea by Thomas Janvier.
Guy Mannering by Sir Walter Scott.
The Antiquary by Sir Walter Scott.
Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott.
Waverly by Sir Walter Scott.
Quentin Durward by Sir Walter Scott. (Does anyone read Scott, other than Ivanhoe, these days?)
Stories and poems by Bret Harte.
Tom Sawyerr by Mark Twain.
Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens.
Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens.
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray.
Pendennis by William Makepeace Thackeray.
The Newcomes by William Makepeace Thackeray.
The Adventures of Philip by William Makepeace Thackeray.
The White Company by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Charles O’Malley by Charles Lever.
Tittlebat Titmouse by Samuel Warren.
Stories by Artemus Ward.
Stories and essays by Octave Thanet (Alice French).
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame.
The stories of Hans Christian Anderson. (TR read these aloud to his children.)
Grimm’s fairy tales. (And these.)
Howard Pyle’s King Arthur.
Joel Chandler Harris’s Uncle Remus stories.
Other authors: Tarkington (Penrod?), Churchill (Richard Carvel or The Crisis?), Remington, Wister (The Virginian?), Trevelyan, Conrad (Lord Jim?),

Poetry:
The Lady of the Lake by Sir Walter Scott.
Marmion by Sir Walter Scott.
Lay of the Last Minstrel by Sir Walter Scott.
The Flight of the Duchess by Robert Browning
The first two cantos of Milton’s Paradise Lost.
Poems by Michael Drayton. (“There are only two or three I care for,” wrote TR.)
Portions of the Nibelungenleid.
Church’s Beowulf.
Morris’ translation of the Heimskringla.
Miss Hill’s Cuchulain Saga, together with The Children of Lir, The Children of Turin, The Tale of Deirdre, etc.
Other poets: Keats, Browning, Poe,Tennyson, Longfellow, Kipling, Bliss Carman, Lowell, R.L. Stevenson, Allingham,

Nonfiction:
Parts of Herodotus.
The first and seventh books of Thucydides.
All of Polybius.
A little of Plutarch.
Parts of The Politics of Aristotle.
Froissart on French history.
The Memoirs of Baron de Marbot.
Charles XII and the collapse of the Swedish empire, 1682-1719 by R. Nisbet Bain.
Essays by Macaulay.
Types of Naval Officers by A.T. Mahan.
Over the Teacups (essays) by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (TR called Holmes, Jr., the son of the author, “one of the most interesting men I have ever met.”)
Abraham Lincoln: A History by John Hay and John G. Nicolay. (Hay was Roosevelt’s Secretary of State until Hay’s death in 1905. Hay was also, as a young man, Lincoln’s assistant and private secretary. Isn’t it odd to think that the same man knew both Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln?)
Two volumes of Speeches and Writings by Abraham Lincoln.
Shakespeare and Voltaire by Thomas Raynesford Lounsbury. (490 pages)
Six volumes of Mahaffey’s Studies of the Greek World.
Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa by David Livingstone.
On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin.
Catalogue of North American Birds by Spencer Fullerton Baird.
Review of American BIrds
North American Reptiles
Catalogue of North American Mammals
My reminiscences of the Anglo-Boer war By Benjamin Johannis Viljoen.
Birds and bees and other studies in nature by John Burroughs.
John James Audubon by John Burroughs.
Malay Sketches by Frank Swettenham.

THis list is just a sampling of TR’s reading. He is generally acknowledged, along with THomas Jefferson, to be best read of all the American presidents.

1904: Events and Inventions

Aug3

February 10, 1904. The Russians and the Japanese go to war after a surprise attack by the Japanese on the Russian fleet at Port Arthur. The two countries are really fighting over their mutual desire to control territory in Manchuria and Korea. Later in the year, the Japanese bomb Vladivostok and destroy the entire Russian fleet.

March, 1904. The British invade Tibet because, they say, of rumors that the Russians are about to attempt a take-over of that country. Many Tibetans are killed in the British incursion, but no Russians are found in Tibet. The British expedition reaches Llasa, and the Dalai Lama flees.

May 4, 1904. Charles Rolls and Henry Royce go into partnership to manufacture cars in England The new car is to be called the Rolls-Royce.

April 8, 1904 Britain and France sign an “Entente Cordiale” settling a number of territorial disputes between the two countries. France is given the right to “guard the peace” of Morocco, and Britain is given free rein in Egypt.

April 30, 1904. The 1904 World’s Fair, also known as the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, opens in St. Louis, Missouri. Several “new” treats take off in popularity at the fair: ice cream sold in cone-shaped waffle pastries, fairy floss (later known as cotton candy), a fizzy new drink invented in Texas and called Dr. Pepper, and tea with ice. The third modern Olympic games also takes place in St. Louis later in the summer.
Meet Me in St. Louis by Robert Jackson is a nonfiction book for children about the World’s Fair.
Meet Me in St. Louis is also a movie starring Judy Garland.

September 25, 1904. In spite of the war with Japan, the Great Siberian Railway linking the Ural Mountains in the west to Vladivostok in the west is finally completed.

October 27, 1904. The official opening of the New York City subway.

November 8, 1904. Teddy Roosevelt is elected president of the United States after having served out the remainder of assassinated president McKinley’s term. He says he will not seek a third term in four years.

December 10, 1904. Ivan Pavlov wins the Nobel Prize in physiology for his studies on digestion and conditioned responses in dogs.

During 1904. About 500 separate strikes take place in Russia as peasants and workers protest the lack of freedom and the horrible working conditions in Russia. Tsar Nicholas II proposes reforms in December, but warns that the strikes must stop.

Meet Me in St. Louis: A Trip to the 1904 World’s Fair by Robert Jackson

Aug2

Facts:
Almost 20 million people from all over the world came to the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis.

President Theodore Roosevelt made two visits to St. Louis, once before the fair’s opening on April 30th and again later in the year before the fair closed on December 1st.

The fair was planned to take place in 1903 as a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase, but it had to be postponed for a year due to the need for more preparations.

THe U.S. Congress invested five million dollars in the fair.

John Philip Sousa and his band performed on the opening day of the fair. Ragtime composer and Missouri resident Scott Joplin composed a piece especially for the fair, called The Cascades.

Thomas Edison himself came to the fair before it opened to help set up al the electric light displays.

Peanut butter and puffed rice, two foods not yet popular in the U.S., were promoted at the World’s Fair. Peanut butter was said to be a health food that was good for teeth.

Displayed in the Palace of Agriculture were a giant elephant made of almonds, a giant horse made of pecans, sculptures made of butter, and a corn palace.

Prince Pu Lun, nephew of the Emperor of China, Minister to His Imperial Presence, visited as the representative of his Emperor at the World’s Fair in St. Louis.

Geronimo lived at the fair for our months and signed autographs for ten cents each.

Ice cream in thin cone-shaped waffles became a favorite treat from the fair. Hot dogs and iced tea also became popular. Dr. Pepper was a fizzy new drink, introduced as a new kind of soda pop, made with 23 flavors.

The Ferris wheel from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition was brought out of storage in Chicago and reassembled for the St. Louis fair. It was 265 feet high, and the cost for a ride was fifty cents.

Reactions:
Edward V. P. Schneiderhahn: “It is unthinkable what may all be seen. The mind reels at the mass of various and wonderful exhibits.”
Anonymous visitor: “My idea is to take in just as much as I can in the time I have.”
A farmer: “By George, I’ve plowed all day many a time; and I know hard work as well as the next man. But this is the hardest day’s work I’ve ever done–it uses you up. But it’s worth it.”
Edmund Philbert: “The view from the top of the wheel was very fine. We made two trips in the afternoon, and in the evening two more to view the illumination which looked fine.”
President Roosevelt: “I count it, indeed, a privilege to have had a chance of visiting this marvelous exposition. It is in very fact, the greatest Exposition of the kind that we have ever seen in recorded history.”

Related books:
Still Shining! Discovering Lost Treasures from the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair by Diane Rademacher.
Beyond the Ice Cream Cone: The Whole Scoop on Food at the 1904 World’s Fair by Pamela Vaccaro.
The Great Wheel by Robert Lawson. Newbery honor fiction about an Irish worker who helped build the great Ferris wheel in Chicago in 1893.
Fair Weather by Richard Peck. Fiction about a farm family’s visit to the Chicago World’s Fair.
The Minstrel’s Melody by Eleanora Tate. Twelve year old Orphelia longs to perform at the St. Louis World’s fair, but she must win a competition to do so. An American Girl history mystery through time.

1904: Books and Literature

Aug1

The Nobel Prize for Literature was divided equally between poet Frédéric Mistral and dramatist José Echegaray y Eizaguirre.

Fiction Bestsellers:
1. Winston Churchill, The Crossing
2. Ellen Glasgow, The Deliverance
3. Anonymous (Katherine Cecil Thurston), The Masquerader
4. Miriam Michelson, In the Bishop’s Carriage
5. Mary Johnston, Sir Mortimer
6. George Barr McCutcheon, Beverly of Graustark
7. John Fox Jr., The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come
8. Kate Douglas Wiggin, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
9. Henry Harland, My Friend Prospero
10. Stewart Edward White, The Silent Places

The only book on the above list that I know is Kate Douglas Wiggin’s Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, and I must commit heresy and admit that as a child I liked it every bit as much as the more famous Anne of Green Gables by L.M> Montgomery. They seemed to me to be the same book, or at least in the same series, with Rebecca Rowena Randall and her maiden aunts substituting quite well for Anne and Marilla. Since Rebecca actually came first, I wonder if L.M. Montgomery ever read Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, either before or after she wrote her own story of a young girl from a large family sent to live with a stern spinster lady. Rebecca and Anne both bring joy and laughter and a bit of benevolent turmoil to a rather joyless home.

Similarities between Anne of Green Gables and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm:
Rebecca is the second oldest of seven children, and her father is dead as the book opens. She has been quite involved in taking care of her siblings since her mother is so overworked, but she is sent to live with her aunts Jane and Miranda because her mother can no longer provide for all of the children. Anne is a poverty-stricken orphan who has been taking care of other people’s children in her foster homes, and she comes to live with sister and brother Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert. Both Anne and Rebecca are imaginative, joyful, and exuberant, sometimes too much so. Marilla and Aunt Miranda are determined to turn their respective charges into proper young ladies. Matthew and Aunt Jane become allies for Anne and for Rebecca in the face of their more domineering sisters. Rebecca and Anne both turn out to be good students, especially in English and literature, and both of them study to become teachers. Both girls read and write poetry. Both girls have a more prosaic best friend for whom they are the catalyst for imaginative adventures.

Both books are good, and Ms. Montgomery was probably the better writer, hence the continued and greater popularity of Anne of Green Gables. However, I think Anne Shirley and Rebecca Rowena Randall would have been “kindred spirits” had they met each other, and perhaps Ms. Wiggin and Ms. Montgomery would have been friends, too.

Critically Acclaimed and Historically Significant:
Henry James, The Golden Bowl
Henry Adams, Mt.-St. Michel and Chartres
Thorstein Veblen, Theory of Business Enterprise
Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
Joseph Conrad, Nostromo
W.H. Hudson, Green Mansions. Semicolon review here. Green Mansions is a particularly interesting and romantic product of the times, set in South America.

As for this list, for the most part I know the authors, but not the books. I think I know Mr. Weber’s basic premise which was that Protestantism lends itself well to and encourages capitalism and business success. Ye olde Protestant work ethic.

Bloomsday, the day on which the action of James Joyce’s novel Ulysses (1922) takes place in Dublin, was June 16, 1904.

Also on December 27, 1904, James Barrie’s stage play “Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up” debuted in London. It was hugely successful and inspired Walt Disney’s Peter Pan movie (1953), Hook (1991), a movie starring Robin Williams as Peter, and Finding Neverland (2004), a movie starring Johnny Depp as James Barrie.

1904: Music

Oct8

George M. Cohan published Give My Regards to Broadway and Yankee Doodle Boy both in 1904. My students had never even heard of Cohan, and one of them had never even heard of any of his songs. Not the two above. Not You’re a Grand Old Flag. Not Over There. Someone has neglected these urchins’ musical education.

Go here for an NPR profile of Cohan and his music.

My family watched the movie Yankee Doodle Dandy with James Cagney as George M. Cohan. Cagney won an Oscar for Best Actor for his portrayal of the song and dance man, and I thought it was delightful film.