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The Roosevelt Family of Sagamore Hill
Sagamore Hill was the home of Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States, from 1885 until his death in 1919. During Roosevelt's time in office, his "Summer White House" was the focus of international attention. -- from the National Park Service website http://www.nps.gov/sahi/index.htm
435 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1954
About the author
Hermann Hagedorn
209 books3 followersHermann Hagedorn (18 July 1882, New York City - 27 July 1964) was an American author, poet and biographer.
He was born in New York City and educated at Harvard University, where he was awarded the George B. Sohier Prize for literature, the University of Berlin, and Columbia University. From 1909 to 1911, he was an instructor in English at Harvard.
Hagedorn was a friend and biographer of Theodore Roosevelt. He also served as Secretary and Director of the Theodore Roosevelt Association from 1919 to 1957. Drawing upon his friendship with Roosevelt, Hagedorn was able to elicite the support of Roosevelt's friends and associates' personal recollections in his biography of TR which was first published in 1918 and then updated in 1922 and which is oriented toward children. The book has a summary questions for young readers at the end of each chapter. Drawing on the same friends and associates of Roosevelt, Hagedorn also published the first serious study of TR's experience as a rancher in the Badlands after the death of his wife and mother in 1884. Hagedorn's access to TR's associates in these two books has been utilized by historian, Edmund Morris in his two highly acclaimed biographical books on Roosevelt published in 1979 and 2001.
He was born in New York City and educated at Harvard University, where he was awarded the George B. Sohier Prize for literature, the University of Berlin, and Columbia University. From 1909 to 1911, he was an instructor in English at Harvard.
Hagedorn was a friend and biographer of Theodore Roosevelt. He also served as Secretary and Director of the Theodore Roosevelt Association from 1919 to 1957. Drawing upon his friendship with Roosevelt, Hagedorn was able to elicite the support of Roosevelt's friends and associates' personal recollections in his biography of TR which was first published in 1918 and then updated in 1922 and which is oriented toward children. The book has a summary questions for young readers at the end of each chapter. Drawing on the same friends and associates of Roosevelt, Hagedorn also published the first serious study of TR's experience as a rancher in the Badlands after the death of his wife and mother in 1884. Hagedorn's access to TR's associates in these two books has been utilized by historian, Edmund Morris in his two highly acclaimed biographical books on Roosevelt published in 1979 and 2001.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 3, 2023
Hermann Hagedorn was a personal friend of the Roosevelt family. He therefore brings a warm, inner perspective on their home life.
This should not be the first book you read on Theodore Roosevelt—nor the second or third. It presumes too much pre-existent knowledge. But if TR is a well-known acquaintance and you would like to visit him again, Hagedorn will take you inside Sagamore Hill where you’ll join TR as he reads and writes and speaks and laughs and romps with his beloved kin.
This should not be the first book you read on Theodore Roosevelt—nor the second or third. It presumes too much pre-existent knowledge. But if TR is a well-known acquaintance and you would like to visit him again, Hagedorn will take you inside Sagamore Hill where you’ll join TR as he reads and writes and speaks and laughs and romps with his beloved kin.
November 16, 2011
Having just finished David McCullough’s Mornings on Horseback, I found this a perfect companion book. Mr. Hagedorn picks right up where Mr. McCullough leaves off, even though Hagedorn’s book was written over 30 years earlier. Hagedorn starts with Theodore Roosevelt’s marriage to Edith and ends with TR’s death.
This book is full of very charming, interesting stories of life in the Roosevelt family. It is brimming with details of Theodore's home life, his relationships with his wife and children (which were very good, by the way), the children’s lives, and all of the many relatives, friends, enemies, and strangers that trooped up to Sagamore Hill in an endless stream. The Roosevelt family never had a dull moment and I loved reading about all of their adventures. This book is not just focused on family life, though. Several passages are devoted to the politics of the day and Theodore’s very active involvement in them.
I found the writing in this book to be a bit overdone and too dramatic at times. I enjoyed the content of this book but didn’t really enjoy the writing style used to convey the content. Maybe it’s partly the style of the day, back in the 1950s. Herman Hagedorn did a great job researching this book but could have made the writing a bit more palatable by simplifying things and doing a little less telling and a little bit more showing.
This book is full of very charming, interesting stories of life in the Roosevelt family. It is brimming with details of Theodore's home life, his relationships with his wife and children (which were very good, by the way), the children’s lives, and all of the many relatives, friends, enemies, and strangers that trooped up to Sagamore Hill in an endless stream. The Roosevelt family never had a dull moment and I loved reading about all of their adventures. This book is not just focused on family life, though. Several passages are devoted to the politics of the day and Theodore’s very active involvement in them.
I found the writing in this book to be a bit overdone and too dramatic at times. I enjoyed the content of this book but didn’t really enjoy the writing style used to convey the content. Maybe it’s partly the style of the day, back in the 1950s. Herman Hagedorn did a great job researching this book but could have made the writing a bit more palatable by simplifying things and doing a little less telling and a little bit more showing.
June 26, 2019
I must admit: even though the title says it all, I was amazed at what a departure this book took. This is the most domestic biography I ever read. Last January I was lucky enough to visit Sagamore Hill, and because few tourists ventured out on this frigid winter day, we were graced with extra tidbits from relaxed docents—and given extra time to observe this gorgeous home. Theodore Roosevelt’s presence was strong in every room on the main floor; there was no mistaking whose house it was. So I was especially charmed by this book's description of his lively, noisy, merry household:
“I don’t know when his morning began,” Hinchman wrote, twenty years later, “but by nine o’clock he had ridden horseback or taken a long tramp, eaten breakfast, and read through a veritable pile of magazines and newspapers. The reading alone would have killed the morning for an ordinary mortal. If a few minutes still remained before Mr. Loeb arrived at Sagamore Hill, the President joined his family on the porch, rocked hard, and talked harder…” Apparently his whole family followed suit. I was glad to realize that my impression of his relationship with his eldest daughter Alice (whose mother died in childbirth) was mistaken. I thought she was withdrawn and ill-tempered. But no, she was every bit a part of the family as the rest of the children. For all of Oyster Bay, the Roosevelts were treated like heroes, and the town did its part in exercising crowd control during his presidency. Everyone wanted to go to Sagamore Hill, and the Roosevelts' neighbors were quite protective.
Although you could say “enough already” with the family stuff, I had no trouble reading through to the end. Still, I was surprised that not a mention was made of monopoly busting, national parks, the Panama Canal, and the myriad other events his presidency was known for. His catastrophic visit to Brazil was given one paragraph. More attention was paid to his personal relationships with friends, foes, and rivals. His family was paramount. I was also happy to be undeceived about his attitude toward WWI. I think I would say he was less a war-monger than a man who sincerely believed that the United States needed to contribute its power and prestige to make an end to the conflict. I don’t think he saw WWI as a game, like San Juan Hill. “But my war was a bow-and-arrow war compared to Ted’s (his son), and no one knows that better than I do,” he is known to have said. Right or wrong, he sent all four of his sons into the conflict knowing that they might not come back. And he didn’t falter when one was killed, though physically, he was at the end of his endurance. I’m really glad to have read this book, because it brings TR down to earth and makes him approachable, even though to posterity he was a colossus.
“I don’t know when his morning began,” Hinchman wrote, twenty years later, “but by nine o’clock he had ridden horseback or taken a long tramp, eaten breakfast, and read through a veritable pile of magazines and newspapers. The reading alone would have killed the morning for an ordinary mortal. If a few minutes still remained before Mr. Loeb arrived at Sagamore Hill, the President joined his family on the porch, rocked hard, and talked harder…” Apparently his whole family followed suit. I was glad to realize that my impression of his relationship with his eldest daughter Alice (whose mother died in childbirth) was mistaken. I thought she was withdrawn and ill-tempered. But no, she was every bit a part of the family as the rest of the children. For all of Oyster Bay, the Roosevelts were treated like heroes, and the town did its part in exercising crowd control during his presidency. Everyone wanted to go to Sagamore Hill, and the Roosevelts' neighbors were quite protective.
Although you could say “enough already” with the family stuff, I had no trouble reading through to the end. Still, I was surprised that not a mention was made of monopoly busting, national parks, the Panama Canal, and the myriad other events his presidency was known for. His catastrophic visit to Brazil was given one paragraph. More attention was paid to his personal relationships with friends, foes, and rivals. His family was paramount. I was also happy to be undeceived about his attitude toward WWI. I think I would say he was less a war-monger than a man who sincerely believed that the United States needed to contribute its power and prestige to make an end to the conflict. I don’t think he saw WWI as a game, like San Juan Hill. “But my war was a bow-and-arrow war compared to Ted’s (his son), and no one knows that better than I do,” he is known to have said. Right or wrong, he sent all four of his sons into the conflict knowing that they might not come back. And he didn’t falter when one was killed, though physically, he was at the end of his endurance. I’m really glad to have read this book, because it brings TR down to earth and makes him approachable, even though to posterity he was a colossus.
December 27, 2019
Good story of Theodore Roosevelt and his family centered around his summer place on Long Island.
January 19, 2022
I enjoyed this book so much.
August 12, 2015
DEE - LIGHTED !!!
A very well organized presentation of the Roosevelt's family life; as well as the Colonel's many and varied occupations.
Primarily a story - of a man and his wife, the house they loved and the six children they brought up in it - and the fact that it is a true story.
Lives without smart phones, facebook, etc. they kept connected by writing letters. Most especially during World War I. Much in the book, at the time during which it was written, was drawn from family letters Mr. Roosevelt's, first of all, published and unpublised, to his family and friends, the unpublished made available to the author through surviving family members.
I gathered the family was all for one and one for all, above all for each other.
Taking a few years before America entered the war - the Roosevelt's totally were in favor of joining the war to make things right. I wondered what my grandparent's take was. As my parents were dealing with World War II and the aftermath the subject of WW I never came up. An uncle, fighting 'over there' wrote home; reading the letter when I was about eight years old, Uncle Ross inquired 'how are the kiddies?. It captured my attention because I never thought of my Dad and Aunts as ever being 'kiddies'.
Roosevelt, looked up from the book he ws reading and said, to his wife, apropos of nothing, "I wonder if you will ever know how I love Sagamore Hill."
At five o'clock next morning he was dead. The family, we know carried on to face WW II.
A very well organized presentation of the Roosevelt's family life; as well as the Colonel's many and varied occupations.
Primarily a story - of a man and his wife, the house they loved and the six children they brought up in it - and the fact that it is a true story.
Lives without smart phones, facebook, etc. they kept connected by writing letters. Most especially during World War I. Much in the book, at the time during which it was written, was drawn from family letters Mr. Roosevelt's, first of all, published and unpublised, to his family and friends, the unpublished made available to the author through surviving family members.
I gathered the family was all for one and one for all, above all for each other.
Taking a few years before America entered the war - the Roosevelt's totally were in favor of joining the war to make things right. I wondered what my grandparent's take was. As my parents were dealing with World War II and the aftermath the subject of WW I never came up. An uncle, fighting 'over there' wrote home; reading the letter when I was about eight years old, Uncle Ross inquired 'how are the kiddies?. It captured my attention because I never thought of my Dad and Aunts as ever being 'kiddies'.
Roosevelt, looked up from the book he ws reading and said, to his wife, apropos of nothing, "I wonder if you will ever know how I love Sagamore Hill."
At five o'clock next morning he was dead. The family, we know carried on to face WW II.
February 1, 2011
This book focuses more on Teddy Roosevelt's family life than on his public life as a war hero and president. From that perspective, it provides a very good depiction of the unique and touching relationships that he had with his wife and children, relationships that lead you to appreciate who Teddy Roosevelt was as a man. At times, I grew a little weary of all the stories of family outings that grew repetitive, but the book is worth reading if you're curious about who Teddy Roosevelt was. If you're looking for an in-depth history of his political actions, then this is not the book for you.
July 10, 2014
This book was recently donated to the Logos Library. I love reading about Teddy Roosevelt, so took it home to read. Clearly one of the best books I've ever read and very inspiring - what courage! what perseverance! what a trustworthy and moral character is this Theodore Roosevelt! If only we could have another president like him again.
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December 8, 2009This book gave a nice insight into the personal life of Teddy Roosevelt after his marriage to Edith up until his death.
May 7, 2013
One of my all-time favorite books. Opens up the personal lives of the Teddy Roosevelt family. Brings them to life.
May 17, 2017
Read this when I visited Sagamore Hill; fascinating.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews