AMERICAN AUTHORS CHALLENGE--JULY 2023--U.S. PRESIDENTS

This month's challenge is to read something written by one of our U. S. Presidents. The choices are pretty much endless here, since even those who didn't see fit to leave us memoirs or autobiographies were journalists, diarists and letter-writers.

The trick is determining whether the President in question actually wrote what appears under his name, particularly when dealing with speeches. Most Presidential speech writers remain fairly anonymous, but we do recognize the names of a few of the best of them---Archibald MacLeish, Ted Sorenson, Peggy Noonan, William Safire, Pat Buchanan. George Washington reportedly called upon Alexander Hamilton to draft his Farewell Address, and James K. Polk couldn't even write a simple declaration of war without the assistance of his Secretary of the Navy. Scribbling on the backs of envelopes, and running with the result was not common, even in the 19th century, and there is no historical evidence to support the legend that Abraham Lincoln composed the Gettysburg Address in that fashion. He was, in fact, known to give much care and attention to composing his speeches, and several original copies of that one exist. Woodrow Wilson was the last President to actually write his own speeches, according to historians, though FDR contributed first drafts that underwent less revision by staff than most, and his "day of infamy" speech is accepted as all his own. Orson Welles, however, is credited with suggesting the joke about FDR's "little dog Fala" (a thrifty Scottie) being offended by Republican rumors that he was left behind on a Presidential trip to the Aleutians, and that a destroyer was sent back to rescue him at great expense to the American taxpayers.

For undisputed authorship, you can't beat the works of Thomas Jefferson, Ulysses S. Grant and Teddy Roosevelt.

I will probably be reading Grant's memoirs for this challenge as I have owned the book for years and yet to crack it.

I found this The Rough Riders which names Teddy as the author so I will be reading (audio) to that one.

A PROMISED LAND comes right up, along with U.S. Grant.

As I have all those Library of America volumes pictured above, as well as their collections of "Writings" of John Adams, George Washington, and James Madison, I'm spoiled for choice. But I'm inclined to read some of Teddy's stuff.

Two books I have: In Review: Pictures I've Kept: A Concise Pictorial "Autobiography" by Dwight Eisenhower and The Naval War of 1812 by TR.

The Eisenhower book was assembled in 1969 using passages from Crusade in Europe, Mandate for Change, Waging Peace, and At Ease. The manuscript was reviewed, revised, and approved by the Man.

TR wrote and published the first edition of The Naval War of 1812 when he was 23 years old.

I'm probably going to revisit this one later. I have works by Lincoln, Jefferson and Obama, the latter read, but I have so much else I want to read at the moment.

I'm assuming that books written before the author held the office of president can be included.

>8 quondame: Oh, absolutely.

I read The Rough Riders by Theodore Roosevelt.

I chose this one because I have read so many books about Teddy Roosevelt. (6) that it just seemed appropriate to read this book that he wrote. Written in 1899 by Theodore Roosevelt about his experience with the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry. And I do not know much about the Spanish American War. This book is a bit memoir and military history. Roosevelt is the author of several books.

Theodore Roosevelt held several different political types of posts. He was president from 1901 to 1909 and was the youngest present at 42, turning 43 when McKinley was assassinated. Theodore also received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 which I think is kind of an oxymoron as Teddy liked war and was more for war that for peace but he did negotiate peace between Russia and Japan and he resolved a dispute with Mexico with arbitration.

The most interesting part of The Rough Riders is how they were made up. This was voluntary and not a part of the military. The original plan for this unit called for filling it with men from the Indian Territory, New Mexico, Arizona, and Oklahoma. It quickly became the place for a mix of troops ranging from Ivy League athletes to glee-club singers to Texas Rangers and Indians. There were former confederate soldiers and black soldiers and even a Spaniard who wanted to prove his loyalty to the US. While some of the words used in the book might not be politically correct to people today it is clear that everyone was considered on the merit of whether he could be a good soldier.

The war: The Cubans were fighting for independence from Spain and US had moved some of the Navy to Havana Harbor to protect its interest. The Maine blew up in the harbor. What was called yellow journalism played a big part in the US getting involved. The papers reported that the Maine had been blown up by Spain when that probably wasn't the reason. There is a strong possibility that the ship combusted from the gasses that were emitted from burning bituminous coal. The truth will never be known for sure. (see Paul Atwood, Professor and Senator Lodge comments) Another tactic of the paper was to report the atrocities of concentration camps. The reason for reporting was not to escalate war but to sell papers (Hearst and Pulitzer). (see Robert Osgood, 1953) The president did not want to go to war but Roosevelt and others favored war because
of the US direct interest in Cuban Tobacco and sugar and relations to the projected Panama Canal.
1. Humanitarian reason (there are people who believed that it was the humane thing to do.
2. Standpoint of National Honor
3. Standpoint of National Interest.
The US is a warring nation and these reasons are generally the reasons, heavy on the National interest. There's always some $ that is the motivator. Even in today's current Russian/Ukraine war.
With Spain losing the war the US obtained Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines.

>10 Kristelh: Great review, Kristel! I'm currently reading TR's autobiography, and am very impressed with the clarity of his style. I'm not out of his youthful years yet, but am looking forward to his account of more historical events.

>11 laytonwoman3rd: Thanks, Linda.

I just finished The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant. My comments: "This is not a book that the reader can go into expecting a traditional biography because it is not - Grant does give some biographical details, but not many. The bulk of this book concerns his military career - his presidency does not come into play here either. This is not to say that the writing is not good - it is. However, I would not recommend this book be read by someone who does not have at least a passing familiarity with the U.S. Civil War. There are a lot of battles covered, many military men come and go, and at times, Grant does not mention which side that they were on in the Civil War. There are maps in the book, but the text on most of them is microscopic (some of them are helpful though!) and many look like an octopus with its many tentacles. All of this being said, I would highly recommend the book to history fans or Civil War buffs - this book was written not only by a man who was there, but a man who was in command"

The month is winding down. Isn't anyone else reading some presidential output?

>14 laytonwoman3rd: I read Dreams from my Father.

Percival Everett's thread is up for the August challenge.

>14 laytonwoman3rd: Sorry, but it took me pretty much the entire month to read Grant. The text size was pretty small.