This Preface I write to my fellow countrymen as I give into their hands these intimate reminiscences of my brother, Theodore Roosevelt.

A year and a half ago I was invited by the City History Club of New York to make an address about my brother on Washington’s Birthday. Upon being asked what I would call my speech, I replied that as George Washington was the “Father of his country,” as Abraham Lincoln was the “Saviour of his country,” so Theodore Roosevelt was the “Brother of his country,” and that, therefore, the subject of my speech would be “The Brother of His Country.”

In the same way, I feel that in giving to the public these almost confidential personal recollections, I do so because of the attitude of that very public toward Theodore Roosevelt. There is no sacrilege in sharing such memories with the people who have loved him, and whom he loved so well.

This book is not a biography, it is not a political history of the times, although I have been most careful in the effort to record facts accurately, and carefully to search my memory before relating conversations or experiences; it is, I hope, a clear picture, drawn at close hand by one who, because of her relationship to him and her intercourse with him, knew his loyalty and tenderness of heart in a rare and satisfying way, and had unusual opportunity of comprehending the point of view, and therefore perhaps of clarifying the point of view, of one of the great Americans of the day.

As I have reread his letters to me, as I have dwelt upon our long and devoted friendship—for we were even more friends than brother and sister—his character stands out to me more strongly than ever before as that of “The Great Sharer.” He shared all that he had—his worldly goods, his strong mentality, his wide sympathy, his joyous fun, and his tender comprehension—with all those with whom he came in contact, and especially with those closest and dearest to him—the members of his own family and his sisters.

In the spirit of confidence that my frankness will not be misunderstood, I place a sister’s interpretation of a world-wide personality in the hands of my fellow Americans.

Corinne Roosevelt Robinson.

September, 1921.