{"product_id":"2940013342279","title":"Letters to His Children","description":"INTRODUCTION\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMost of the letters in this volume were written by Theodore Roosevelt to\u003cbr\u003ehis children during a period of more than twenty years. A few others are\u003cbr\u003eincluded that he wrote to friends or relatives about the children. He\u003cbr\u003ebegan to write to them in their early childhood, and continued to do\u003cbr\u003eso regularly till they reached maturity. Whenever he was separated from\u003cbr\u003ethem, in the Spanish War, or on a hunting trip, or because they were at\u003cbr\u003eschool, he sent them these messages of constant thought and love, for\u003cbr\u003ethey were never for a moment out of his mind and heart. Long before they\u003cbr\u003ewere able to read he sent them what they called \"picture letters,\" with\u003cbr\u003ecrude drawings of his own in illustration of the written text, drawings\u003cbr\u003eprecisely adapted to the childish imagination and intelligence. That the\u003cbr\u003elittle recipients cherished these delightful missives is shown by the\u003cbr\u003etender care with which they preserved them from destruction. They are\u003cbr\u003ein good condition after many years of loving usage. A few of them are\u003cbr\u003ereproduced in these pages--written at different periods as each new\u003cbr\u003echild appeared in the household.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThese early letters are marked by the same quality that distinguishes\u003cbr\u003eall his letters to his children. From the youngest to the eldest, he\u003cbr\u003ewrote to them always as his equals. As they advanced in life the\u003cbr\u003emental level of intercourse was raised as they grew in intelligence and\u003cbr\u003eknowledge, but it was always as equals that he addressed them. He was\u003cbr\u003ealways their playmate and boon companion, whether they were toddling\u003cbr\u003einfants taking their first faltering steps, or growing schoolboys, or\u003cbr\u003eyouths standing at the threshold of life. Their games were his games,\u003cbr\u003etheir joys those of his own heart. He was ready to romp with them in\u003cbr\u003ethe old barn at Sagamore Hill, play \"tickley\" at bedtime, join in their\u003cbr\u003epillow fights, or play hide-and-seek with them, either at Sagamore\u003cbr\u003eHill or in the White House. He was the same chosen and joyous companion\u003cbr\u003ealways and everywhere. Occasionally he was disturbed for a moment about\u003cbr\u003epossible injury to his Presidential dignity. Describing a romp in the\u003cbr\u003eold barn at Sagamore Hill in the summer of 1903, he said in one of his\u003cbr\u003eletters that under the insistence of the children he had joined in it\u003cbr\u003ebecause: \"I had not the heart to refuse, but really it seems, to put it\u003cbr\u003emildly, rather odd for a stout, elderly President to be bouncing over\u003cbr\u003ehayricks in a wild effort to get to goal before an active midget of a\u003cbr\u003ecompetitor, aged nine years. However, it was really great fun.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was because he at heart regarded it as \"great fun\" and was in\u003cbr\u003ecomplete accord with the children that they delighted in him as a\u003cbr\u003eplaymate. In the same spirit, in January, 1905, he took a squad of\u003cbr\u003enine boys, including three of his own, on what they called a \"scramble\"\u003cbr\u003ethrough Rock Creek Park, in Washington, which meant traversing the most\u003cbr\u003edifficult places in it. The boys had permission to make the trip alone,\u003cbr\u003ebut they insisted upon his company. \"I am really touched,\" he wrote\u003cbr\u003eafterward to the parents of two of the visiting boys, \"at the way in\u003cbr\u003ewhich your children as well as my own treat me as a friend and playmate.\u003cbr\u003eIt has its comic side. They were all bent upon having me take them;\u003cbr\u003ethey obviously felt that my presence was needed to give zest to the\u003cbr\u003eentertainment. I do not think that one of them saw anything incongruous\u003cbr\u003ein the President's getting as bedaubed with mud as they got, or in my\u003cbr\u003ewiggling and clambering around jutting rocks, through cracks, and up\u003cbr\u003ewhat were really small cliff faces, just like the rest of them; and\u003cbr\u003ewhenever any one of them beat me at any point, he felt and expressed\u003cbr\u003esimple and whole-hearted delight, exactly as if it had been a triumph\u003cbr\u003eover a rival of his own age.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen the time came that he was no longer the children's chosen playmate,\u003cbr\u003ehe recognized the fact with a twinge of sadness. Writing in January,\u003cbr\u003e1905, to his daughter Ethel, who was at Sagamore Hill at the time,\u003cbr\u003ehe said of a party of boys that Quentin had at the White House: \"They\u003cbr\u003eplayed hard, and it made me realize how old I had grown and how very\u003cbr\u003ebusy I had been the last few years to find that they had grown so that\u003cbr\u003eI was not needed in the play. Do you recollect how we all of us used to\u003cbr\u003eplay hide and go seek in the White House, and have obstacle races down\u003cbr\u003ethe hall when you brought in your friends?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDeep and abiding love of children, of family and home, that was the\u003cbr\u003edominating passion of his life. With that went love for friends and\u003cbr\u003efellow men, and for all living things, birds, animals, trees, flowers,\u003cbr\u003eand nature in all its moods and aspects. But love of children and\u003cbr\u003efamily and home was above all. The children always had an old-fashioned\u003cbr\u003eChristmas in the White House.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47172853825776,"sku":"2940013342279","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013342279_p0.jpg?v=1763580077","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013342279","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}