FOOTNOTES:
[159] From “Lost Ships and Lonely Seas,” by Ralph D. Paine. Copyright by the Century Co.
PERSONALITY IN CORRESPONDENCE
By THEODORE ROOSEVELT and AUGUSTUS SAINT-GAUDENS
(1858-1919). Twenty-sixth President of the United States. One of the most vigorous, courageous and picturesque figures in the public life of his day. Soon after his graduation from Harvard, and from Columbia Law School he entered public life, and gave invaluable service in many positions, becoming President in 1901, and again in 1904. His work as an organizer of the “Rough Riders,” his skill in horsemanship, his courage as an explorer and hunter, and his staunch patriotism and high ideals all made him both interesting and beloved. His work as an author is alone sufficient to make him great. Among his many books are The Winning of the West; The Strenuous Life; African Game Trails; True Americanism.
(1848-1907). One of the greatest American sculptors. His statues of Admiral Farragut, Abraham Lincoln, The Puritan, Peter Cooper, and General Sherman are noble examples of his art. Many other works of sculpture, including the beautiful “Diana” on Madison Square Garden Tower, New York, attest his rare skill. He excelled in what is called “relief.” His influence on American art was remarkably great. His portrait-plaque of Robert Louis Stevenson is especially interesting to lovers of literature.
The essay and the friendly letter are closely related. It is natural for one who writes a friendly letter to express himself freely and intimately, to make wise or humorous comments on life, to write meditatively of all the things that interest him,—in fact, to reveal himself in full. To do all that, even within the limited form of the letter, is to write an approach to an essay. Almost any one of the essays in this book might have been written as part of a friendly letter.
The spirit of the essay, that of personality, should enter into all letters except those that are purely formal in nature. In fact, the amount of personality expressed in a letter is, often, a measure of the success of the letter.
The following letters written by Theodore Roosevelt and Augustus Saint-Gaudens are, in a sense, business letters. In 1905 Mr. Roosevelt was president of the United States. He believed that the coins of the United States, like the coins of the ancient Greeks, should be beautiful. That he had the highest respect for the great sculptor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, is shown by a letter that he wrote in 1903 concerning the impressively beautiful statue of General Sherman, that now stands at the 59th Street entrance to Central Park, New York City. In 1905 Mr. Roosevelt met Mr. Saint-Gaudens at a dinner in Washington and talked with him concerning the coinage of the United States and the possibility of improving it. The letters given in this book are part of the correspondence that followed this conversation.
Both men had serious purpose in writing and both were intensely practical; yet each man wrote in a manner that is exceedingly personal. The letters have something of the spirit of the essay.