Letters to His Children

Letters to His Children, by
Theodore Roosevelt

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Title: Letters to His Children
Author: Theodore Roosevelt

Release Date: September, 2004 [EBook #6467] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on December 17,
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Edition: 10
Language: English
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LETTERS TO HIS CHILDREN By Theodore Roosevelt
First published 1919.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT'S
LETTERS TO HIS CHILDREN

Edited by
Joseph Bucklin Bishop

INTRODUCTION
Most of the letters in this volume were written by Theodore Roosevelt
to his children during a period of more than twenty years. A few others
are included that he wrote to friends or relatives about the children. He

began to write to them in their early childhood, and continued to do so
regularly till they reached maturity. Whenever he was separated from
them, in the Spanish War, or on a hunting trip, or because they were at
school, he sent them these messages of constant thought and love, for
they were never for a moment out of his mind and heart. Long before
they were able to read he sent them what they called "picture letters,"
with crude drawings of his own in illustration of the written text,
drawings precisely adapted to the childish imagination and intelligence.
That the little recipients cherished these delightful missives is shown by
the tender care with which they preserved them from destruction. They
are in good condition after many years of loving usage. A few of them
are reproduced in these pages--written at different periods as each new
child appeared in the household.
These early letters are marked by the same quality that distinguishes all
his letters to his children. From the youngest to the eldest, he wrote to
them always as his equals. As they advanced in life the mental level of
intercourse was raised as they grew in intelligence and knowledge, but
it was always as equals that he addressed them. He was always their
playmate and boon companion, whether they were toddling infants
taking their first faltering steps, or growing schoolboys, or youths
standing at the threshold of life. Their games were his games, their joys
those of his own heart. He was ready to romp with them in the old barn
at Sagamore Hill, play "tickley" at bedtime, join in their pillow fights,
or play hide-and-seek with them, either at Sagamore Hill or in the
White House. He was the same chosen and joyous companion always
and everywhere. Occasionally he was disturbed for a moment about
possible injury to his Presidential dignity. Describing a romp in the old
barn at Sagamore Hill in the summer of 1903, he said in one of his
letters that under the insistence of the children he had joined in it
because: "I had not the heart to refuse, but really it seems, to put it
mildly, rather odd for a stout, elderly President to be bouncing over
hayricks in a wild effort to get to goal before an active midget of a
competitor, aged nine years. However, it was really great fun."
It was because he at heart regarded it as "great fun" and was in
complete accord with the children that they delighted in him as a

playmate. In the same spirit, in January, 1905, he took a squad of nine
boys, including three of his own, on what they called a "scramble"
through Rock Creek Park, in Washington, which meant traversing the
most difficult places in it. The boys had permission to make the trip
alone, but they insisted upon his company. "I am really touched," he
wrote afterward to the parents of two of the visiting boys, "at the way
in which your children as