For H.C.D.

with

devotion

FOREWORD

This is a carefully revised and—perhaps happily—shortened version of a biography first published almost a quarter of a century ago. The author said then, and reiterates now, that Theodore Roosevelt was polygonal. He was a man of many ideas, and few of them lacked brilliance. The book still attempts to tell the whole story of an extraordinarily full life. And within the limits of human fallibility, objectivity has been the goal. In all likelihood neither the adulatory friends of Roosevelt nor his foes will feel that the goal has been reached. For the storms which swirled around him while he lived have not yet spent their hurricane force in either history or in human memories.

The footnotes and the bibliography have been omitted, for the sake of space. Any who seek the sources can find them in the longer edition. The appendix is also missing, for the same reason. My debts therein expressed are still debts today. But there is a new and very deep one. This is to Elting E. Morison and his associates, who compiled the eight large volumes of Roosevelt letters with such industry and skill. They will long stand as a model for the publication of Presidential papers. I have naturally read them, word by word. They have confirmed much originally written and much in this briefer biography.

The pages which follow will have failed completely unless they prove that Theodore Roosevelt was never dull. He grew old in body only; at least a decade too soon. T.R. combined adult greatness with the endearing, if sometimes irritating, quality of being a magnificent child. The combination was a major reason why men followed and loved him, throughout a growing and changing land.

September 2955. H.F.P

vu