BOO KS
These Roosevelt letters remind us vividly of the exuberance, the
inextinguishable vitality, and the keen, animal instinct of the man. He
was, of course, voracious in his interests; except for Jefferson, no Amer–
ican president has ever known so much, read so widely, or dogmatized
so freely in so fantastic a variety of fields.
If
his opinions of Henry
James seem cheap and stupid today, how many active politicians, then
or now, have read Henry James at all? And the more striking thing
is the number of new men and ideas Theodore Roosevelt recognized
and encouraged. He instantly perceived the importance of Mahan on
the influence of sea power in history ; he sensed, less sharply, that of
Turner on the frontier. He singled out the bright young men of the
day: William Allen White, Jacob Riis and Lincoln Steffens were
his friends; Stephen Crane dined with him; he entertained Hamlin
Garland in Washington, introducing him to Brooks Adams and Cabot
Lodge; he responded, coarsely but positively, to a whole range of new
sensations, from Tolstoy (reading
Anna Karenina
on a western trip in
between rounding up cattle thieves) to Professor Langley's flying
machine.
More important was his sense for the grand movements of the
time. H e had no original ideas; but his instinct for historical tendencies
GOTHAM BOOK MART
41 WEST 47 ST., NEW YORK 19, N••Y
THE ART OF GRAHAM GREENE, by
Kenneth Allott
&
Miriam Farris.
First attempt to ossess his contri·
bution to English literoture
3.50
ENVOY. Entire Moy issue devoted to
Joyce
.60
IDEAS ON FILM. Edt. by Cecile
Starr. A handbook for the I
bmm.
film user
4.50
PARTS OF A WORLD, by Wallace
Stevens. Aworded 1949 Bollingen
Prize
3.00
SUMMER'S CHILDREN, by Barbara
Morgan. Mognificent instructive
photogrophs of life ot compo
7.50
BOTTEGHE OSCURE VI, includes
contributions by James Agee, How–
ard Griffin, Theodore Roethke
&
Dylan Thomas. No. VII includes
George Barker, Truman Capote,
Barbara Howes
&
Donald Windham.
Eoch
2.00
Spring Currents, Other Lists on Request
Z
J:
Q
BLOMSHIELD
*
PRIVATE INSTRUCTION
*
PAINTING
*
DRAWING
*
rOlTRAITUItE
MODERN APPROACH TO REALISM OR
ABSTRACTION FOR CAREER OR HOllY
340 E.
63RD ST.,
N. Y. 21
*
TE
8-4149
ELEKTRA RECORDS
Presents
Texts by:
cummings, Rilke,
Kafka, Holderlin
vf/Iw
8/J1I9
8
by JOHN GRUEN
Georgiana Bannister, soprano
John Gruen, piano
at all record stores
$5.95
