Theodore Roosevelt’s Wilderness Writings

Theodore Roosevelt, the twenty-sixth president of the United States, was not only the most famous hunter of his generation of Americans, but he was also among its best-informed and most popular outdoor writers. Edmund Heller, the well-known Smithsonian biologist who accompanied Roosevelt on his famous African expedition, said that the former president was the world’s foremost authority on large mammals. He was also an avid bibliophile and had what may have been the finest large mammal library in North America in the early 1900s. Roosevelt communicated with authorities--both sportsmen and scientists--in all parts of the world. From his lifelong study and enthusiasm for outdoor adventure came a host of durable writings, gathered together here in a collection that celebrates the natural world.

Roosevelt’s commitment to saving wild places is one of his most lasting contributions as a U.S. president. This collection combines classic hunting and nature narratives with his equally durable advocacy of wilderness protection for the sake of personal and national character. This new edition features an introduction by Paul Schullery that provides historical and ecological context.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), twenty-sixth president of the United States, won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1906 for mediating an end to the Russo-Japanese War (1904-5). His three dozen books include The Wilderness Hunter, The Rough Riders (Bison Books, 1998), Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail (Bison Books, 1983), and A Book-Lover’s Holiday in the Open. Paul Schullery is the author, coauthor, or editor of more than fifty books on history, nature, and outdoor sport, including The Bear Doesn’t Know: Life and Wonder in Bear Country (Bison Books, 2021) and Searching for Yellowstone: Ecology and Wonder in the Last Wilderness.