Typed letter signed to Lady Gregory from Theodore Roosevelt regarding her book Cuchulain of Muirthemne

Typed letter signed to Lady Gregory from Theodore Roosevelt regarding her book Cuchulain of Muirthemne

Washington, D.C.

June 8, 1903

In a note to John Redmond, leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, which was widely published in Irish and American newspapers in May 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt mentioned having read and enjoyed Gregory’s Cuchulain of Muirthemne. She swiftly sent him a copy of her newly published collection of folktales and plays, Poets and Dreamers—to which this letter is Roosevelt’s reply. This began a long correspondence and friendship, with Gregory visiting the Roosevelts during her trips to America. When the Abbey Theatre’s touring company faced violent protests against J. M. Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World in 1911, Roosevelt offered her pivotal support by escorting her to the theater and conspicuously sitting beside her.

Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundation