Who Should Go West

Who Should Go West by Theodore Roosevelt, originally published in 1886.
20 pages; 5.50" x 8.50"; softcover, black & white images and text {with a map of mentioned sites of the Western Frontier}
Currently unavailable; email the publisher if you need a copy.
ISBN 1-928757-02-2




The preface:

Theodore Roosevelt lived one of the most amazing lives of any age. Born into a wealthy family in New York City in 1858, he was a sickly child whose obsession with physical fitness would last his whole life.
A graduate of Harvard and a dropout from Columbia Law, he served in the New York State Assembly before moving West to start two cattle ranches in the Dakota Territory. Returning to the East, he was President of the Police Commission of New York City, then served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy. He resigned that post to become a lieutenant colonel with the First United States Volunteer Cavalry Regiment {the 'Rough Riders'} in Cuba, where he led the charge up San Juan Hill. {For this service he belatedly received the Congressional Medal of Honor, 100 years later.}
He held public office as Governor of New York, Vice President, and, after the assassination of William McKinley, the 26th {and youngest ever} President of the United States. During his presidency, he founded the National Park and National Monument systems, presided over the building of the Panama Canal, and received a Nobel Prize for negotiating an end to the Russo-Japanese War.
Stories about his hunting exploits led to the creation of the 'Roosevelt Bears', Teddy B. and Teddy G., whose descendants live on today.
After leaving office, he led expeditions to Africa and South America, and survived his own attempted assassination. He died in bed in 1919.
As the librarian of the Roosevelt Library and Museum said in his introduction in 1927, "now that the life he pictures is gone forever, it is well worth preserving in its present form". Only seventy three copies of Who Should Go West were originally privately printed in New York City; with only one known to reside in the Rare Book Collection of the Library of Congress, this is our contribution to preserving his view of that splendid life.

Mark W. Seymour, editor

An excerpt dealing with ranching:

To be able to follow the business at all, the man must be made of fairly stern stuff. He must be stout and hardy; he must be quick to learn, and have a fair share of dogged resolution; and must rapidly accustom himself to habits of complete self-reliance. If he wishes to lead a happy life, he must also be good-natured, for his companions will greet with the most merciless raillery the slightest timidity or clumsiness on the part of a beginner, and they are a class of men who will resent in the roughest and most effectual manner any exhibition of ill temper. Even after many months of patient practice it is rate that an Eastern-bred man attains to the perfection shown by the plainsman in the actual cow-boy work, such as throwing the rope, stopping a stampede, breaking a rough horse, etc. To make up for his shortcomings in these particulars, he must show especial excellence in other regards. He must work regularly, not by spasms; he must keep sober; must be always alert and ready, and willing to turn his hand to whatever comes up.