Book Review of "Roosevelt: The Story of a Friendship" by Owen Wister
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Date Published: January 20, 2025
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A Review of “Roosevelt: The Story of a Friendship” by Owen Wister
- Reviews of the Day: 1930
- Selected Insights from “Roosevelt: The Story of a Friendship”
- This Author’s Thoughts on “Roosevelt: The Story of a Friendship”
Reviews of the Day: 1930
“Roosevelt: The Story of a Friendship” was released in 1930. Here are a few of the book reviews found in the newspapers from that timeframe:
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On June 21, 1930, Fred K. Owen of The Portland Evening Express wrote in the newspaper’s “Prowling Among Books and Book Folk” that “Mr. Wister is one of the first writers of America. Whatever he has to say in print he says well and in manner to charm. This is true of all he writes about Roosevelt and his friends. …
“His book is not an idealization of the subject of his sketch [Theodore Roosevelt]. He tells of him as he knew him, expresses the opinion that often he was wrong and often he was misrepresented. … “That Wister was a personal and not a political friend … made him the recipient of confidences that were accorded but a few. This also enabled him to be in more intimate touch with the real Roosevelt than others.” On June 22, 1930, The Minneapolis Journal wrote in its “Books and Art” a review of “Roosevelt: The Story of a Friendship” entitled “Roosevelt’s Genius for Friendship.”
In this column they wrote, “We see Roosevelt at play and at work, doing both with incomparable gusto that endeared him to the American people. “He was never able to understand how any fair-minded person could differ with him. Few of our public men have been more hurt and bewildered at opposition, few more in need of approval and applause. …
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Owen Wister: Author of some twenty books including “Roosevelt: The Story of a Friendship."
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“Unfortunately, the latter half of the book is marred by wholly unnecessary information—the expression of opinions not essential to the work concerning Woodrow Wilson … war-guilt questions … and attacks on liberals and historians.”
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On June 21, 1930, The Daily Times’ Addie May Swain reviewed “Roosevelt: The Story of a Friendship” in her column “Book Reviews.” She wrote under the subheading “Wister’s Story of a Friendship” that “among the more intimate friends of the late Theodore Roosevelt, few are more competent to write of Roosevelt’s mature life than Owen Wister. …
"Wister never had an axe to grind, he never had a selfish interest in the outcome of any of Roosevelt’s policies. He could thus without fear or favor discuss any problem with the president. … “There is an expression the author uses within the book which seems very apt when applied to Roosevelt of fact and of legend, and that is a “preacher militant.” It was the preacher militant within him who won him both friends and enemies, who was responsible for the best and the worst of his crusades. … “But through it all a nobility of intention persisted. None would question that. Not even his bitterest enemy.” |
Front dust cover and spine of Owen Wister's "Roosevelt: The Story of Friendship"
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On September 7, 1930, W. A. D. of The Nashville Banner wrote a review of “Roosevelt: The Story of a Friendship” in the column: “New Books.” The reviewer wrote that, “the best part of Mr. Wister’s book, and a very great ‘best’ it is, covers brief sketches of some of the famous contemporaries of the former President. …
“The most intensely interesting of this group is Judge Oliver Wendell Holmes of the Supreme Court. …
"There are some revealing instances of the man’s real character and his respect for the position of a jurist.”
“The most intensely interesting of this group is Judge Oliver Wendell Holmes of the Supreme Court. …
"There are some revealing instances of the man’s real character and his respect for the position of a jurist.”
Selected Insights from “Roosevelt: The Story of a Friendship”
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Roosevelt was known by his friends for his “gatherings.” Owen Wister wrote about these meetings and how they involved famous individuals including politicians, university men, scientists, explorers and adventurers, soldiers, cowboys, social reformers, lawyers, artists, and other well-known specialists in all fields of the day. Once Teddy Roosevelt felt that he could “be himself” around an individual—express himself freely, an individual was accepted as a “familiar.”
This included the likes of: Henry Cabot Lodge, Henry Adams, Elihu Root, Gifford Pinchot, Jules Jusserand, Leornard Wood, Lyman Abbott, William Howard Taft, and many others. Wister Wrote About Some of These “Familiars:” Famous Individuals: - Herbert Hoover, Future 31st President of the United States
“I had become acquainted with Hoover in Europe during the early months of the Great War, and was as much attracted by his qualities of personality as impressed by his extraordinary ability. …
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Front dust cover of "Roosevelt: The Story of a Friendship"
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“As I grew to know him well, the quality in him that most impressed me was his kindness, the deep well of good will that his shyness and reticence hid from many who did not see him in intimacy. It was a good will that was not measured merely by the sum of the pains he took, and the pleasure in being helpful to individuals. …
“It was a good will extended to all humanity; it was an attitude toward all life.”
“It was a good will extended to all humanity; it was an attitude toward all life.”
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Supreme Court Judge
“His talk would always bubble and sparkle from him, a stream of seriousness and laughter, imagination and philosophy, in which enthusiasm was undying; and the style of a master in English marked his improvisations, just as it marks his writing. … He had a way of putting his thoughts so unusually that they stuck. I remember his, ‘No generalization is wholly true—not even this one.’ …
“Holmes wrote that ‘life of the law has not been logic, it has been experience, that the law embodies the story of a nation’s development through many centuries, and cannot be dealt with as if it contained only the axioms and corollaries of a book of mathematics.’ ”
“Holmes wrote that ‘life of the law has not been logic, it has been experience, that the law embodies the story of a nation’s development through many centuries, and cannot be dealt with as if it contained only the axioms and corollaries of a book of mathematics.’ ”
- Jules Jusserand, French Ambassador to the United States
“In everything he has written, be it in English or in French, you will meet an intelligence which drips with erudition, yet never once bristles with pedantry. Charm and vivacity underlie all his learning. …
“The vivacity which pervaded the mind of Jules Jusserand animated his body as well, and his muscles were as nimble as his wit. On the tennis court he could judge a ball as accurately as a footnote in a book of reference. … He was short in stature, had a way of tilting his head a little to one side, which somehow seemed to add a point to his observations.”
“The vivacity which pervaded the mind of Jules Jusserand animated his body as well, and his muscles were as nimble as his wit. On the tennis court he could judge a ball as accurately as a footnote in a book of reference. … He was short in stature, had a way of tilting his head a little to one side, which somehow seemed to add a point to his observations.”
This Author’s Thoughts on “Roosevelt: The Story of a Friendship”
Owen Wister’s most successful contribution to writing, movies and television was his original book: “The Virginian.” It came first in novel form; it was then released as a play; it was then made into a movie—five times; and finally it was a hit T.V. series. He is credited by many in print as making “The Western” a genre all by itself “atop of America’s popularity heap.”
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Other books Owen Wister wrote included: Red Men and White, Lin McLean, Hank’s Woman, Members of the Family, When West Was West, Lady Baltimore, Safe in the Arms of Croesus, and U.S. Grant and the Seven Ages of Washington. From the list, it is easily discernable that “The Virginian” was his tour de force.
Wister’s “Roosevelt” is an interesting book that seems to wander—almost aimlessly, between the autobiographical—of the author Owen Wister, and the biographical—of our former President, Teddy Roosevelt. At times the reader finds themselves lost in pages and pages of descriptions of trips that Owen Wister takes that has no bearing on his relationship or friendship with the former President. The fact that there is no Table of Contents was a particular frustration as this is generally used by this author to help sort, classify, and possibly either focus on or skim over some of the information being presented. |
Owen Wister was Author of “The Virginian” that was made into a “talking” movie.
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One of the sections that is wonderful is a section that captures, in Owen Wister’s opinion, the personalities and characters of some of those who belonged to the gang of “familiars” who attended gatherings—both impromptu and formal, with Theodore Roosevelt. Of course, with everyone’s “guard down” this section offers some insights into many American dignitaries in their relaxed moments.
Wister writes:
“It was when none but ‘Familiars’ assembled that Roosevelt let himself go, that the whole company let itself go, that it became sheer luxury to listen to these distinguished and brilliant men turn their minds loose to play. …
“Meeting here in a sort of free masonry, they dropped their caution; nobody was going to quote anything outside [the room]; therefore much inside [the room] was laid bare. … Whatever it happened to be it was skillfully tossed about in general conversation, everyone at his best through Roosevelt’s stimulating presence.”
After this he writes short, ten to twenty page descriptions of such men as Oliver Wendell Holmes, William Howard Taft, Henry Adams, Elihu Root, Jules Jusserand, Henry Cabot Lodge, and more. These descriptions are so powerful that I wrote down at the time that the subtitle of the book, instead of being “The Story of a Friendship” should have been “The Friendships Surrounding and Supporting Teddy Roosevelt.” Some of these stories as summarized within this book, such as the background on Jules Jusserand, I haven’t seen elsewhere.
After reading the work I have to agree with one reviewer who wrote that this work, when it comes to our former President Theodore Roosevelt, is really a “work of literature, rather than a historical work.” Don’t approach this work expecting a historical biography, but rather a wandering, meandering exposure to a forty-year relationship between two men: one a writer and one a foremost statesman of our country.
Approach it with this knowledge, skim over the uninteresting, and the book is informative and enjoyable.
Cheers,
- Peter E.
“It was when none but ‘Familiars’ assembled that Roosevelt let himself go, that the whole company let itself go, that it became sheer luxury to listen to these distinguished and brilliant men turn their minds loose to play. …
“Meeting here in a sort of free masonry, they dropped their caution; nobody was going to quote anything outside [the room]; therefore much inside [the room] was laid bare. … Whatever it happened to be it was skillfully tossed about in general conversation, everyone at his best through Roosevelt’s stimulating presence.”
After this he writes short, ten to twenty page descriptions of such men as Oliver Wendell Holmes, William Howard Taft, Henry Adams, Elihu Root, Jules Jusserand, Henry Cabot Lodge, and more. These descriptions are so powerful that I wrote down at the time that the subtitle of the book, instead of being “The Story of a Friendship” should have been “The Friendships Surrounding and Supporting Teddy Roosevelt.” Some of these stories as summarized within this book, such as the background on Jules Jusserand, I haven’t seen elsewhere.
After reading the work I have to agree with one reviewer who wrote that this work, when it comes to our former President Theodore Roosevelt, is really a “work of literature, rather than a historical work.” Don’t approach this work expecting a historical biography, but rather a wandering, meandering exposure to a forty-year relationship between two men: one a writer and one a foremost statesman of our country.
Approach it with this knowledge, skim over the uninteresting, and the book is informative and enjoyable.
Cheers,
- Peter E.