Talks with T. R.:

by John J. Leary Jr.

Whatever you think of Teddy Roosevelt, it cannot be argued that he was one of America's most dynamic presidents. In this series of conversations recorded by Jack Leary, you'll see a side of Roosevelt you may not have seen before.

Thoughtful, analytic, and outrageous, T.R. seldom fails to entertain and to hold his audience enthralled.

On the topic of women in high office, T.R. simply said, "Why not?"

John Joseph Leary, Jr. (1874 – 1944) was a 1920 Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who was fortunate to spend time with T.R. before his death.

Politics, family, and war are featured among the rich collection of conversations here. T.R. even discusses his own psychology:

“I suppose it is another manifestation of my general bloodthirsty, swashbuckling frame of mind, my fondness for the big stick and violence of all kinds. I want my country to be right; I hope she always will be right; but right or wrong, whatever she gets into I am going to be with her until she gets out. Then if there is any correcting to do, I’ll try and do my share. And I am not prepared to concede the possibility of error in that doctrine by agreeing to debate it with anybody."

This intimate view of President Roosevelt will keep you engaged from cover to cover. Buy it today.

227 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 11, 2014

About the author

John Joseph Leary, Jr. was an American reporter and newspaper editor who worked for the Lynn Press, the Boston Adviser and Record, the Denver Times, the Boston Post, the Boston Journal, the Boston Herald, the New York Herald, the New York World and the New York Tribune. He was a 1920 Pulitzer Prize winner for reporting on the labor problems of the coal industry in West Virginia for an editorial entitled Law and the Jungle.

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leary was one of the few newsmen with personal access to TR. Most of their meetings took place between 1916 and 1919, the year of TR's death. Being a reporter, Leary transcribed their private conversations. After TR died Leary decided to publish his notes so that posterity would have a record of the "real and true" TR. This is that record.

The form it takes is as a collection of short stories. They're not organized in any particular fashion (except roughly chronological I suppose) nor are they connected from one to the next. Each stands alone. Some are only one page long. Others are a handful of pages at most. This format makes for an easy book to grab when you only have a few minutes free.

If you're new to TR, Leary's anthology is not a good starting point. But I would guess that if you have come looking for this book, then you have already read quite a bit about TR (this book is not a chart topper in other words). And in that case, the real value of Leary's work is that it will sharpen the resolution of the picture you already hold in your mind TR. It will add dimensions to his personality which you will not find anywhere else.

For instance: TR has a reputation for craving the spotlight. But what comes through in these stories is that he was actually quite self-aware. He had an acute sense of the commotion that inevitably followed him around. He therefore declined many invitations to events where he thought it unfair to take attention away from others. That is just one example of the nuance conveyed in Leary's conversations. There are many more.

In terms of pure entertainment value, I would only give this three stars. But relative to its purpose—bringing us inside the mind of TR—it's more successful, brief and incomplete though it is.