My Brother Theodore Roosevelt
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1921. First Edition. Hardcover. First printing, octavo size, 379 pp., inscribed by Corinne Roosevelt Robinson to "Mrs. Olcott" (Clara L. Olcott?]. Very good. Item #20071001
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt (1858-1919), the 26th President of the United States, is remembered for many things: the establishment of national parks, the champion of the "Square Deal", and the start of the Panama Canal, to name just a few.
This work was written by his younger sister, Corinne, an author and poet. She explains in the Preface what the book is about: "[t]his book is not a biography, it is not a political history of the times, although I have been most careful in the effort to record facts accurately, and carefully to search my memory before relating conversations or experiences; it is, I hope, a clear picture, drawn at close hand by one who, because of her relationship to him and her intercourse with him, knew his loyalty and tenderness of heart in a rare and satisfying way, and had unusual opportunity of comprehending the point of view, and therefore perhaps of clarifying the point of view, of one of the great Americans of the day."
Inscribed in the year of publication by Corinne Roosevelt Robinson on the front free endpaper thus: "Inscribed for / Mrs Olcott with / pleasant memories / of our working / together, / by / Corinne Roosevelt Robinson / Oct 22nd 1921". The book was then bequeathed by Mrs. Olcott to her grandson eleven years later, as indicated on the verso of the front free endpaper: "To Edward Arnold Tripp / from / Grandma Olcott / March 9, 1932 / (??) / For your twelfth birthday / I send you this book which I prize / for its autograph by the author as / well as for its contents! I hope you / will prize it for both those reasons / and for my sake." Clearly Mrs. Olcott cherished the book, as mounted onto the flyleaf is a contemporary review of the book.
___DESCRIPTION: Bound in full black cloth over boards, a narrow blind-debossed border on the front, gilt lettering and rules on the front and spine, fore-edge uncut, inscription by the author on the front free endpaper, gift inscription from Mrs. Olcott to her grandson on the verso of the front free endpaper, newspaper review clipping on the flyleaf (all three as set forth above), frontis a half-tone photograph of "Theodore Roosevelt with his little granddaughter, Edith Roosevelt Derby, 1918", still with its tissue guard, stated September 1921 printing on the copyright page with no further printings (therefore a first printing, Scribner's had not yet adopted the use of their "A"), with nine additional pages of reproductions of sixteen photographs, additional pages with in-text drawings; octavo size (8.25" by 5.75), pagination: [i-vi] vii-[xiv] 1-365.
___CONDITION: A solid very good copy, the boards mostly clean with a few light, stray marks, straight corners with miniscule rubbing, a strong, square text block with solid hinges, and collated complete; free of prior owner markings other than the inscriptions already noted, however, inexplicably, someone mounted onto the verso of the rear flyleaf a half-cent USPS stamp with the image of Nathan Hale; offsetting from glue on both endpapers, offsetting from the mounted newspaper clipping at the front and from (apparently) another newspaper clipping on the rear free endpaper.
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Price: $150.00