Theodore Roosevelt - Jacob A. Riis

“Of the President I am proud with reason, but the friend I love. And if I can make you see him so, as a friend and a man, I have given you the master-key to him as a statesman as well.” —Jacob Riis, Theodore Roosevelt—The Citizen

Theodore Roosevelt—The Citizen (1904) was written by Jacob Riis, a journalist and good friend of Roosevelt’s. Riis explained that his book was not going to be a formal biography as most people knew Roosevelt already. Neither would it be about the meaning of Roosevelt’s life as there were still many more years to come. This biography would be about Roosevelt, the man and friend of Riis’. It became a wonderful and personable biography.

Roosevelt and Riis met after Roosevelt had heard about Riis’s book How the Other Half Lives (1890), about the poverty in the slums of New York City. A few years later, when Roosevelt was New York Police Commissioner and Riis a police reporter, the two often worked together. Both passionate for reform and improvement of people’s lives, they became good friends.