Colonel Roosevelt - Edmund Morris [152]
It was clear that something important had to come out of his pen during the winter, if he was going to reestablish himself as a man of letters. But what, and who would publish it? Most of the top houses in New York listed titles by him. G. P. Putnam’s Sons had The Naval War of 1812, Hunting Trips of a Ranchman, The Wilderness Hunter, The Winning of the West, American Ideals, and Theodore Roosevelt: Works, a fifteen-volume set issued somewhat prematurely in 1900. The Century Company had Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail, Hero Tales from American History, The Strenuous Life, and Stories of the Great West. Houghton Mifflin had Gouverneur Morris and Thomas Hart Benton; Longmans, Green & Co., New York: A Sketch; and the Outlook Company, The New Nationalism. Bibliographically, it was an impressive list, especially when the Scribners quartet was added to it, along with overseas editions and translations. Commercially, he had to accept that all of his books except The Rough Riders were languishing in backlist.
Late in November he let it be known that he was thinking of publishing some autobiographical chapters in The Outlook. He was not sure that he would enjoy this “experiment” in self-revelation, but very sure that he wanted to be well paid if it developed into a book. Charles Scribner was upset not to be offered first serial rights, since Scribner’s Magazine had such a wide circulation and had done so well with African Game Trails. But Roosevelt felt obliged to give them to The Outlook, which had suffered many canceled subscriptions after supporting his bolt from the Republican Party. Scribner, undeterred, scented another bestseller. It would be the first presidential autobiography since those of the two Adamses—not that they had been of much value. Ulysses S. Grant’s famous memoir had ended with the Civil War. Roosevelt was not only a gifted writer, but his life story was as thrilling as any novel. Scribner wrote to William B. Howland, treasurer of The Outlook, in a state of high excitement. “This is the first time that I have ever put in a blind bid for the publication of a book.” He asked if the Colonel would accept an advance of $12,000 and a royalty rate of 20 percent.
It was a generous offer, matching the record rate Scribner had paid for African Game Trails. He was pained when Howland replied on 3 December that Roosevelt had yielded to “another proposition [that] is distinctly better from more than one point of view.”
The proposition had come from the Macmillan Company, and was better indeed, paying Roosevelt an advance of $20,000 and a royalty rate of 50 percent. In return for these amazing terms, he was required to finish his manuscript by the summer of 1913, for publication that fall. Which meant printing the first chapters in The Outlook early in the new year, so that the whole book could be serialized before it appeared in hardcover.
Nobody in the industry doubted that Roosevelt could, and would, deliver on time: his reputation for promptness was legendary. But before starting work on what he insisted on calling his “possible autobiography,” he had some scholarly writing to do. The American Historical Association had elected him as its president, and invited him to address its year-end convention. He thought he would speak on the subject of “History as Literature,” and publish his lecture as the title piece in a volume of miscellaneous essays and reviews.
His third book project for the winter was unlikely to be profitable, but would satisfy the mammologist in him. It was to be the collaborative scientific study he had long planned to write with Edmund Heller, entitled Life-Histories of African Game Animals. Charles Scribner was awarded full publication rights for $4,000, a not exactly glittering consolation prize.
JOHN F. SCHRANK, meanwhile, was tried in Milwaukee on a charge of assault with intent to murder. He pleaded guilty, but with qualifications: “I intended to kill Theodore Roosevelt, the third termer. I did not want to kill the candidate of the Progressive Party.