ROOSEVELT THEODORE In Memory of My Darling Wife Alice Hathaw

Sale 2310 - Lot 327

Price Realized: $ 38,400

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 25,000 - $ 35,000

ROOSEVELT, THEODORE. In Memory of My Darling Wife Alice Hathaway Roosevelt and of My Beloved Mother Martha Bulloch Roosevelt. 45 pages. 8vo, contemporary soft calf with silk-covered endpapers, minor wear, top spine end chipped; front hinge broken, internally clean. In a modern 1/4 morocco folding case by Starr Bookworks. [New York: Press of G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1884]

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Additional Details

Roosevelt's mother and young wife both died in his home on the same day, 14 February 1884, just two days after the birth of his daughter. Typhoid fever took his mother, and Bright's Disease caused his wife's death. Roosevelt published this memoriam, featuring his tributes to both women, the funeral service by the Reverend John Hall, the resolutions offered in the New York State Assembly, and the newspaper coverage of the funeral. Roosevelt's tribute to his late wife is short but touching: "We spent three years of happiness such as rarely comes to man or woman. . . . She was beautiful in face and form, and lovelier still in spirit. . . . and when my heart's dearest died, the light went from my life forever."
The memoriam apparently had a very small print run. It is now probably the greatest printed Roosevelt rarity. Only one copy in WorldCat, and none others known at auction. Cordingley, Extreme Rarities in the Published Works of Theodore Roosevelt, page 26-28.