STUNNING SET OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT’S COMPLETE WRITINGS, WITH ONE VOLUME BOLDLY SIGNED BY ROOSEVELT AND CO-AUTHOR HENRY CABOT LODGE

ROOSEVELT, Theodore. Complete Writings. Philadelphia: Gebbie and Co., 1902-03. Twenty-two volumes. Octavo, original full navy morocco, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, raised bands, morocco doublures, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt.

"Edition de Luxe" of the writings of the adventurous 26th president of the United States, number 17 of 500 sets, with 90 engraved plates and photogravures, in beautiful publisher’s deluxe full morocco-gilt. This set boldly signed on the title page of Hero Tales from American History by Theodore Roosevelt and his co-author Henry Cabot Lodge, dated by each "Feb. 8th, 1909."

Includes Roosevelt's histories, biographies, essays and hunting stories published up to the year 1903, including the important The Rough Riders and The Winning of the West. While a student at Harvard, Roosevelt "published (with a friend) a paper of professional quality on birds of the Adirondacks and wrote a senior thesis that called for limited voting rights for women and their 'most absolute equality' in marriage. He also wrote the first two chapters of The Naval War of 1812 (1882), a work of meticulous scholarship acclaimed in British and American naval circles alike… By Roosevelt's graduation the qualities that were to attract, repel, or bemuse his countrymen for four decades became pronounced. He abounded in physical and mental energy, acted often on impulse and at times on shrewd calculation, and generally exuded warmth, affection, and charm. He possessed the gift of words, though he limited their flow with difficulty; and even when he was moralizing, his force and imagery made him unfailingly interesting" (ANB). Frontispiece portraits of Roosevelt in Volume I of The Naval War of 1812, The Rough Riders, and in The Strenuous Life. There were 26 lettered sets of The Complete Writings that were issued signed by Roosevelt and the publisher on a limitation leaf; this set was one of 500 issued unsigned, then signed at a later date by both Roosevelt and Lodge in the volume that they co-authored, Hero Tales from American History. See Wheelock, 5. Bookplate.

Fine condition. A beautiful set.