ROOSEVELT, THEODORE., President. Autograph manuscript signed in full, the draft of his Introduction to a book on Commander Robert E. Peary's North Pole Expedition, "The White Nile," 12 March 1910. 2 pages, large folio, with numerous corrections, revisions and several deleted portions. ROOSEVELT EXTOLS PEARY'S NORTH POLE TRIUMPH Peary became the first explorer to reach the North Pole (although his claim has been challenged by recent evidence), when his party completed their trek on 6 April 1909. Worldwide attention focused upon the achievement. In homage to the former President, Peary's ship was named the Roosevelt . The manuscript's first page is headed, "Introduction," and at the bottom of page two Roosevelt has noted ""This is to be used in the book; not in any Magazine article." "Some years ago I met at a dinner in Washington the famous Norwegian explorer Nansen, himself one of the heroes of polar adventure; and he remarked to me, 'Peary is the best man....and there is a good chance that he will be the one to succeed.' I can not give the exact words...they made a strong impression on me. I though of them when in the summer of 1908 I, as President of the United States, went aboard Peary's ship to bid him Godspeed on the eve of what proved to be his final effort to reach the Pole. A year later, when I was camped on the northern foothills of Mt. Kenya, directly under the Equator, I received by a native runner the news that he [Peary] had succeeded, and that thanks to him the discovery of the North Pole was to go in the honor role of those feats in which we take a peculiar pride because they have been performed by our fellow countrymen. "Probably few outsiders realize the well nigh incredible toil and hardship entailed in such an achievement....A 'dash for the Pole' can be successful only if there have been many preliminary years of painstaking, patient toil. Great physical hardihood and endurance, an iron will and unflinching courage, the power of command, the thirst for adventure, and a keen and far-sighted intelligence -- all these must go into the make up of the successful arctic explorers, of the man who succeeded where hitherto even the best and the bravest had failed. Commander Peary has made all the dwellers in the civilized world his debtors; but, above all, we, his fellow Americans, are his debtors. He has performed one of the great feats of outr time' he has won high honor for himnself and his country; and we welcome his own story of the triumph which he won in the immense solitudes of the wintry north." some four and a half lines at the end, deleted by Roosevelt, remain quite readable. Provenance : Elsie O. and Philip D. Sang Foundation (sale, Sotheby Parke Bernet, 3 June 1980, lot 1007).
ROOSEVELT, THEODORE., President. Autograph manuscript signed in full, the draft of his Introduction to a book on Commander Robert E. Peary's North Pole Expedition, "The White Nile," 12 March 1910. 2 pages, large folio, with numerous corrections, revisions and several deleted portions. ROOSEVELT EXTOLS PEARY'S NORTH POLE TRIUMPH Peary became the first explorer to reach the North Pole (although his claim has been challenged by recent evidence), when his party completed their trek on 6 April 1909. Worldwide attention focused upon the achievement. In homage to the former President, Peary's ship was named the Roosevelt . The manuscript's first page is headed, "Introduction," and at the bottom of page two Roosevelt has noted ""This is to be used in the book; not in any Magazine article." "Some years ago I met at a dinner in Washington the famous Norwegian explorer Nansen, himself one of the heroes of polar adventure; and he remarked to me, 'Peary is the best man....and there is a good chance that he will be the one to succeed.' I can not give the exact words...they made a strong impression on me. I though of them when in the summer of 1908 I, as President of the United States, went aboard Peary's ship to bid him Godspeed on the eve of what proved to be his final effort to reach the Pole. A year later, when I was camped on the northern foothills of Mt. Kenya, directly under the Equator, I received by a native runner the news that he [Peary] had succeeded, and that thanks to him the discovery of the North Pole was to go in the honor role of those feats in which we take a peculiar pride because they have been performed by our fellow countrymen. "Probably few outsiders realize the well nigh incredible toil and hardship entailed in such an achievement....A 'dash for the Pole' can be successful only if there have been many preliminary years of painstaking, patient toil. Great physical hardihood and endurance, an iron will and unflinching courage, the power of command, the thirst for adventure, and a keen and far-sighted intelligence -- all these must go into the make up of the successful arctic explorers, of the man who succeeded where hitherto even the best and the bravest had failed. Commander Peary has made all the dwellers in the civilized world his debtors; but, above all, we, his fellow Americans, are his debtors. He has performed one of the great feats of outr time' he has won high honor for himnself and his country; and we welcome his own story of the triumph which he won in the immense solitudes of the wintry north." some four and a half lines at the end, deleted by Roosevelt, remain quite readable. Provenance : Elsie O. and Philip D. Sang Foundation (sale, Sotheby Parke Bernet, 3 June 1980, lot 1007).
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
