 Thank You Clay that was lovely One of my nicest qualities is that I can't quote myself, so I Thank you for doing it, and I'd like to thank also mrs. Vickers and dr. Vickers It's it's truly a privilege not to mention an adventure to be taking part in this conference From the first time I heard that you're the Dickinson had plans to hold a symposium on Theodore Roosevelt the adventurer I thought it was a brilliant idea, and as we've already seen from the speakers. We've heard so far The brilliant idea has been turned into a brilliant reality I hope I really hope that all of you are enjoying yourselves as much as I am The reason that I think a conference on Theodore Roosevelt the adventurer is a brilliant idea is that TR's sense of adventure Was one of his most characteristic characteristics Also, the subject of his one that few of us really that few of us pause to consider at any length These three days are a wonderful opportunity to do that and my guess is that they'll leave us thinking about how to make our Own lives more adventurous. I don't know about you, but I take history and biography personally I don't just want to learn the facts and the ideas when I read a history or a biography I want to learn something about human nature and human experience and to build What I learn into my own life and especially into my relations with other people I'm going to talk mostly about TR on safari, but before I do that I want to tell you a little bit about how I came to write a book focused on this period in TR's life the last 10 years of his life. I was in this book about Henry Adams and his friends called the Five of Hearts and they're a generation older than Theodore Roosevelt and He comes in and out of the book and kind of as kind of a cameo character and they treat him rather Comically, they don't take him all that Seriously, their letters are full of humorous remarks about him and one thing that stayed in my mind from It was like 15 years between the time that book was published and this book was published And all that time I kept thinking that this man was only 50 when he left the White House He loved being president. He loved having power. He was good president He's at the top of his game and all of a sudden it's over So I wondered what would happen to a man like that a man who loved power once he didn't have it anymore So this book is really my answer to that question TR gave a multitude of meanings to adventure in the word To encompass everything from a hike in the woods to hunting trips to life itself The summer before last I drove around the parts of northern France where the American Expeditionary force of World War one which included all four of his sons and one of his two sons-in-law Did most of its fighting and one of the things I sought out was the monument that the Roosevelt family put up in memory of TR's youngest son Quentin who's plane was shot down in a field nearby The monument sarcophagus like structure of stone and it has a big water basin fed by a spout Like many of the memorials put up in France after the war It was meant both to honor the war dead and to serve some useful function. This one was intended for the Coca-Cola livestock The inscription on the sarcophagus is from TR's book The Great Adventure And he said he had Quentin in mind when he wrote it Only those are fit to live who do not fear to die and none of I Who have shrunk from the joy of life and the duty of life? The joy of life and the duty of life and the courage to embrace both that was TR's notion of the supreme adventure When you think about Presidential style Adventurous is definitely a word that comes to mind other words would be energetic and active and I think his Accomplishments as president put him right up there with the other men whose faces look out from that presidential monument in my second favorite Dakota But for me The word that best defines his presidency is not adventure. It's enlargement He enlarged the role of the federal government in American life using its power as a counterweight to the power of the industrial and financial it sprung up in the Last part of the 19th century He enlarged the power of the presidency and like every successful occupant of the White House. He enlarged himself as His future nemesis Woodrow Wilson put it the president of liberty both in law and in conscience To be as big a man as he can his capacity will set the limit But in spite of all that TR achieved his president and in spite of the fact that he loved being president He occasionally chafed at the office of the office who wouldn't it's fascinating to watch him during his last year in the White House He kind of seesaws between Ringing every last drop of enjoyment out of the place and throwing himself wholeheartedly into The preparations for a grand adventure his year-long safari in Africa a Trip that he regarded as his reward for two and a half years of very hard work as a public servant So on the one hand you see him in his letters doing things to make that last year as memorable as possible Like taking a census on the White House grounds for example or making sure that he invites This or that friend for one more meal in the White House And on the other hand you see him carrying on an amazingly voluminous correspondence in connection with the safari His English friends and friends of his English Are connecting him with their friends in British East Africa and they write back Extending invitations and answering his questions about hunting and giving him all kinds of it of practical advice Be sure to have leather patches sewn on the knees of your trousers because the grasses can knife sharp Get boots with thick rubber soles because they make no noise when you're sneaking up on game He was also advised to take plenty of jam because many safari goers had experienced surprisingly strong cravings for sweets when they were out in the bush Somebody told him to order up plenty of lard and beef fat too for cooking the lean antelope and gazelles that would be served for dinner most nights People sent him all kinds of things to take along on the trip John L. Sullivan the prize fighter sent him a rabbit's foot for good luck and An American dentist who knew that stringy meat has a tendency to get caught in between the teeth sent to our supply of dental floss The letters about guns and ammunition going to and from the White House in 1998 would fill a small book And when it came to tents Frederick Sellas an English sportsman celebrated for his African hunting exploits Recommended one of green waterproof canvas with a small compartment tacked on at the back for a bathroom It also had a sort of canvas veranda out front for dining and writing. It sounded so Said that it made him feel a little effeminate You can see how that would not go down well with him Not at all like his Dakota days. He wrote sell us back then he had slept on a tarp under the stars He agreed to the luxurious tent line at real China simple aluminum or or enamel where would do for him he said The most famous thing TR took on the safari was his pigskin library With a birthday check from one of his sisters He ordered up a long list of books in compact editions and then asked his book dealer to have them taken apart and Trimmed at the margins and then rebound and pigskin He wanted the pigskin because he knew that regular cloth and board book covers wouldn't hold up as the books were bounced around in the bush He also booked dealer to have an aluminum bookcase for this custom design Make an aluminum bookcase for this custom design traveling library The case was surprisingly small just a little over two feet tall less than a foot wide and only about a few inches deep Still it was big enough for almost 60 volumes and by law the largest load a safari porter could carry was 60 pounds So the library had to be brought in at something less than that and it weighed in once it was slipped into its oil Skin case at pounds TR's sense of adventure was intellectual as well as physical and political His curiosity and his knowledge had enormous range which you can see in the pigskin library For his trip he wanted books that took time to ingest he said the works of great authenticity and Milton There were a few medieval classics few English romantic poets and three volumes complete containing the complete works of Shakespeare Up to that point. He hadn't really enjoyed Shakespeare because he didn't care for drama written in verse But for safari purge art in Shakespeare as a kind of emergency ration the largest amount of sustenance in the smallest possible space He said took along a bit of history and for fun There was fiction Brett Hart Mark Twain James Fenner more Coopers or Walter Scott Zachary and Dickens TR could hold his own against a battalion of English professors in any poetry quoting contest and most of the books in the pigskin Library he had read before some of them more than once His excitement about the safari comes through in his letters again and again He could just hardly wait for that trip to start six months before he leaves the White House He's writing one of his hosts out there by George. I am red hot to get out now And can't you just hear him say that maybe maybe clay will deliver that line in his best Rooseveltian manner later on He was eager for the adventure and eager to get past the dull presidential campaign then underway His hand-picked successor William Howard Taft was a thoroughly lovable fellow, but had died on the campaign trail Taft's opponent William Jennings Bryan had more spark But the two of them were arguing about who would be the better steward of the progressive legacy begun by TR The voters went with TR's pick TR originally conceived of the safari as a relatively straightforward hunting trip with his son Kermit But as his plans took shape they grew larger and larger Why not make it a scientific expedition as well and take along some naturalists from the Smithsonian? He wondered and why not pay for it by writing magazine pieces as he went and wouldn't be a good idea to stay away So that Taft could have the stage all to himself and become president in his own way TR paid his expenses and Kermits But he persuaded the Smithsonian to sponsor the trip and fund the work of three naturalists with money from private donors Scribner's a classy months Published that published the likes of Henry James and Edith Wharton offered to him a whopping $50,000 for a dozen articles which would be published first in the magazine and then as a book