May 05, 2016 - Sale 2413

Sale 2413 - Lot 187

Price Realized: $ 938
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
EXPLORER A.H.S. LANDOR IS "AS SPECIOUS AS DR. [FREDERICK] COOK" ROOSEVELT, THEODORE. Typed Letter Signed, to Douglas W. Freshfield, with a few holograph corrections, criticizing an explorer. 1 1/2 pages, 4to, personal stationery, written on two sheets; horizontal fold. (TFC) New York, 19 November 1914
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". . . Landor's answers are typical . . . . I don't wonder at his fooling ignorant outsiders, because he is as specious as Dr. Cook, always avoids the main point of controversy and make assertions so reckless that it is really difficult to meet them . . . . Of course, even among experts, there is a certain percentage of fools . . . . [I]f the imposter can get enough notoriety he will find any number of supporters of the same intellectual type as those who supported the Tichborne claimant. Landor is really exactly in the class with the Tichborne claimant.
". . . I did not state all that the Brazilians told me about [Landor]. . . . They told me he was very self-indulgent and rather lazy and that when he endeavored to ascend a small mountain, he gave out and abandoned the attempt, while they went to the summit and hoisted the flag . . . ."
In 1913-14, Roosevelt led an expedition through Brazil collecting plant and animal specimens.