Camping & Tramping with TR
Okay, I guess I got tired of reading all this recent stuff from the 1960s, so I reached back to my more normal hundred-years-ago (1907) and finished off Camping & Tramping with Roosevelt, by John Burroughs. It's one of the final two volumes of his complete works (depending upon which edition one consults) even though it was published earlier than other volumes. This book consists of a brief introduction by Burroughs, and then two essays, one of which was in Afoot and Afloat, which I recently read, and the other of which describes a visit to Sagamore Hill around 1906.
The Introduction is brief, and consists mostly of an extract from an 1892 letter from TR, taking Burroughs to task for a theory he had about the comparative size and fecundity of European species and their North American counterparts. Burroughs includes it to show (the theme of both the essays) that Roosevelt was a real naturalist, and made his argument with extensive use of examples, across a broad range of species.
The essay "President Roosevelt as a Nature-Lover and Observer" describes a tramp through the woods of the estate, and shows that Roosevelt held his own with the two professional naturalists in his company. It's also a charming description of a President who had far wider interests than most politicians. (Who wrote, it should not be forgotten, 35 books. And studied judo.*)
CBsIP: The Adventures of Ibn Battuta, Ross E. Dunn
A History of Warfare, John Keegan
Listening Woman, Tony Hillerman
* I just had to throw that in.