The purpose of the writer has been to show why Rudyard Kipling thought Theodore Roosevelt the incarnation of Bunyan’s character “Great-Heart,” and to reflect the romance and inspiration contained in Roosevelt’s life.

The work has been approached from the viewpoint of one who was not a partisan; of one disposed to be critical; of one who, however, viewing Roosevelt’s career as a whole, was so moved by its grandeur that he became impelled to play what part he could in perpetuating the memory of this inspiring American among his people.

Moreover, there was a natural attraction to write of him whose career from birth to death was a panorama of adventure and climax and achievement; of him whose life had in it those elements which create literature—that human stuff that makes immortal such books as Plutarch’s Lives and Robinson Crusoe.

Full justice to his subject the author could not hope to render. Powerful indeed will be the pen that adequately describes Roosevelt’s life of struggle and triumph, with its warfare against bodily handicaps and political prejudice; warfare against wild beasts in dense jungles; warfare against hunger and exhaustion on inconceivably hard journeys of exploration; warfare against predatory wealth; warfare against men in high places who would grind the faces of the poor; warfare to prepare America to stamp out forever militarism and bloodshed; warfare to lead the race to the loftiest goals.

The writer does not therefore promise that every motive and deed of Roosevelt’s life will be chronicled in this book. He has tried to be faithful to the main facts, and to so group these facts that the narrative will be vivid and moving—typical of the man about whom it is written—so that not only the few, but also the many, will find enjoyment and uplift in the story. The author will be content if the average man or woman or boy or girl, feels beating through these pages the warm pulses of him who was indeed—“Great-Heart.”

Daniel Henderson.