Mr. Write's Page

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), the 26th President, was passionate about protecting wildlife and preserving the environment — a radical position in his day.

During his presidency, from 1901 to 1908, Roosevelt established five national parks, 18 national monuments, 150 national forests, and 55 game preserves. While he was in office, he quadrupled the amount of federally protected land.

In addition to protecting the people’s heritage, Teddy actively protected the people. Roosevelt believed government regulation should be used to help ensure social justice and economic opportunity for all. The rich and powerful, he reckoned, should be forced to spare a few crumbs in order to strengthen the entire country.

So he went about breaking up several large business monopolies and vigorously enforcing existing regulatory laws. He also pushed through important new laws regulating the food industry. The Pure Food and Drug Act and the Federal Meat Inspection Act were designed to establish standards, prevent fraud, and protect public health.

All very unlikely stances for a Republican.

Teddy — he disliked being called Teddy, but it seems natural — was quite the progressive. He was the first president to fly a plane, ride in a submarine, own a car, own a telephone, entertain an African American in the White House, or win a Nobel Peace Prize.

And very significantly, he was a voracious reader.

Roosevelt had been a sickly child, suffering from asthma, headaches, and stomach pains. His ailments often kept him indoors, and he began reading books for entertainment. His love of reading and learning never waned.

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Like Roosevelt, Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869-1935) was born into a family of wealth and privilege. Of his two older brothers, one was groomed to manage the family fortune, the other became a doctor. Young Edwin was free to turn to the passion of his life, poetry.

He began writing poetry at age 11. Even then, he had a reputation of being, as a friend said, “one of those persons whom you cannot influence, ever.” Edwin went his own way with a strength of purpose that marked his character for the rest of his life.

Although his father doubted the value of a higher education, Edwin enrolled at Harvard in 1891. It marked the beginning of a decade in which the family endured one tragedy after another.

In 1892, Edwin’s father died. Following the depression of 1893, the family sank slowly into bankruptcy. One brother became addicted to morphine, the other to alcohol. Edwin was forced to leave Harvard to care for his mother, who died of diphtheria in 1896.

Meanwhile, Edwin’s poetry was going nowhere. The critics and the public essentially ignored him. But he continued writing, living on a small stipend from his mother’s estate.

By 1901, the family fortune had vanished. Edwin chose to live in poverty and write poetry, relying on temporary work and charity from friends. Many of his poems were about people faced with failure and tragedy who were sustained by their belief in a higher power.

In 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt discovered Edwin’s 1897 book The Children of the Night and was smitten.

After learning about Edwin’s life and circumstances, Roosevelt arranged a job for him at the New York Customs House. The position was tailored to require as little work as possible so Edwin could devote his time to poetry.

According to one biographer, Edwin’s duties consisted of “opening his roll-top desk, reading the paper, closing the desk, leaving the paper in his chair to show he had been there, and going home.”

Such patronage was completely alien to Roosevelt’s character and values. But he felt strongly that Edwin’s work was important. Roosevelt simply made an exception.

As part of that, Teddy pressured Scribner into publishing a new edition of The Children of the Night. He also wrote a magazine article praising Edwin’s work.

When the book was republished, most literary critics politely disagreed with Teddy’s judgment. “A very pleasant little book,” wrote one. “The product of a wholesome faith,” said another.

In spite of Roosevelt’s help, Edwin could not break into the major markets. When Teddy left office in 1909, the Customs House ordered Edwin to do his job, keep regular hours, and wear a uniform. Edwin quit.

Over the years that followed, he lapsed again into poverty and devoted himself anew to writing and rewriting his poems.

Slowly, finally, the critics and the public came around.

By the late 1920s, his long-form narrative poems were highly popular, and even his early books were in demand. For the first time, Edwin was financially independent. By the end of his life, he had won three Pulitzer Prizes.

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Theodore Roosevelt consistently ranks among the handful of our best presidents. Roosevelt did what he believed was right. He was not swayed by obstacles or opposition.

Edwin Arlington Robinson, today considered the first major American poet of the 20th Century, wrote to please an audience of one. Even when it meant poverty and obscurity, he devoted his life to his poetry, on his terms.

Two lessons in character and integrity, I submit, for all of us.

Theodore Roosevelt, by John Singer Sargent, 1903.

Edwin Arlington Robinson, by Lilla Cabot Perry, 1916.

 An Old Story

By Edwin Arlington Robinson
From “The Children of the Night,” 1897

Strange that I did not know him then,
That friend of mine!
I did not even show him then
One friendly sign;
But cursed him for the ways he had
To make me see
My envy of the praise he had
For praising me.
I would have rid the earth of him
Once, in my pride! …
I never knew the worth of him
Until he died.