COWBOYS AND KINGS: Three Great Letters by Theodore Roosevelt

A windfall to delight the literary and political taste, the three letters written on request by Theodore Roosevelt reveal as much of the man in his brilliance, gusto, and moral fibre as they do of the personages, places and politics which are his subject. To John Hay, Roosevelt addressed his letter of August 9, 1903, in which he described his trip through the West as President, where old friendships were recalled and where he summed up the men who had made the West. To Sir George Otto Trevelyan, on October 1, 1911, he wrote of his tour from Khartoum to Berlin with his visits to European royalty, full of incident and diplomacy, personal and political perceptions. To David Gray, on October 5 of the same year, he entrusted a letter detailing his month in England, where the attendance at King Edward's funeral commingled politics and protocol in a rather droll way. Acumen, hardihood, warmth bear witness to the amazing and admirable first Roosevelt in these fascinating messages, a triumphant addition to American letters.