credit: Houghton Library, Harvard University
Teddy Roosevelt first met Alice while at Harvard
“It was a real case of love at first sight- and my first love to.” These are Roosevelt’s words in his journal on the date of Friday, January 30, 1880, as he reflects on meeting Alice Hathaway Lee.
Here he sits between Alice to his left and her cousin Rose Saltonstall to his right. credit: Houghton Library, Harvard University [Cabinet card: Theodore and Alice.] Alice Roosevelt Longworth Family Papers, 1878-1918. MS Am 1541.9 (122-169), Theodore Roosevelt Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
Roosevelt’s Romantic Quotes about Alice
“I can never express how I love her; and if I should love her twice as much and as tenderly it would not be nearly as much as she deserves…”
“Truly these are the golden years of my life.”
“I am so absolutely happy, that I sometimes almost feel as if it must be a dream. No mortal ever could be happier than I am.”
“I am living in a dreamland; how I wish it could last for ever.”
credit: Houghton Library, Harvard University [Cabinet card: Alice and friends.] Alice Roosevelt Longworth Family Papers, 1878-1918. MS Am 1541.9 (122-169), Theodore Roosevelt Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
Teddy Roosevelt at Harvard
Roosevelt at the far right was 19 years old when he fell for Alice Lee. “Love at first sight,” he wrote in his journal entry, “and my first love, too.”
credit: Houghton Library, Harvard University
Alice Roosevelt Longworth Family Papers, 1878-1918. MS Am 1541.9 (122-169), Theodore Roosevelt Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
The Gilded Age Palette
If A Poem Could Live and Breathe draws from the actual recipes of Roosevelt’s time.
HOT CROSS BUNS
1 cup scalded milk. 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon. 1/4 cup sugar. 2 tablespoons butter. 1/2 teaspoon salt. 14 cups raisins stoned and 1/2 yeast cake dissolved in quartered, or 1/4 cup lukewarm water. 1/4 cup currants.
Add butter, sugar, and salt to milk; when lukewarm, add dissolved yeast cake, cinnamon, flour, and egg well beaten; when thoroughly mixed, add raisins, cover, and let rise overnight. In the morning, shape in forms large. biscuits, place in pan one inch apart, let rise, brush over with beaten egg, and bake twenty minutes; cool, and with ornamental frosting make a cross on top of each bun.
Bonus material for DEAR GEORGE, DEAR MARY: A Novel of George Washington’s First Love
Washington may have been the first person to host a “cocktail” hour.
In a witness account from May of 1783, Washington was observed pulling out his watch and noticing it was near dinner time, “offered Wine And Bitters.”
A colonial drink you can make at home:
Hot Spiked Apple Cider: Combine 6 c apple cider, 1 c rum, 2 star anise, 1/2 t whole cloves & 3 cinnamon sticks in a pot. Heat over medium heat for 10 minutes, until warm. Enjoy.
*Calvi toasts Washington with journalist Alex Denis at Fraunces Tavern in NYC. Colonial drinks & cuisine are cited throughout Calvi’s novel.
Exploring the palate of Washington.
Washington’s Tomato Bisque: Saute 1 medium minced onion in 4 T butter for 10 minutes. Add 2 T flour & cook for 3 minutes. Chop 2 lbs of peeled & seeded tomatoes. Add tomato, 1/2 t thyme, 1/2 t basil, & 2 cups of chicken broth to the mixture and simmer for 10 minutes. *Calvi with chef Josyane Colwell on WCBS-TV.
In a letter dated 1758, George Washington writes:
Tis true, I profess myself a Votary to Love—I acknowledge that a Lady is in the Case...
I feel the force of her amiable beauties in the recollection of a thousand tender passages…
…the World has no business to know the object of my Love…
Excerpts from Washington biographies:
Henry Cabot Lodge, 1889: “He was dined and wined in Philadelphia, and again in New York, where he fell in love at apparently short notice with heiress Mary Philipse…”
Jared Sparks, 1843: “The charms of this lady made a deep impression upon the heart of the Virginia Colonel.”
Washington Irving, 1855: “That he was an open admirer of Miss Philipse is an historical fact.”
Poem written in Washington’s journal, 1749-1750:
From your bright sparkling Eyes, I was undone;
Rays, you have, more transparent than the sun,
Amidst its glory in the rising Day,
None can you equal in your bright arrays;
Constant in your calm and unspotted Mind;
Equal to all, but will to none Prove kind,
So knowing, seldom one so Young, you’l Find.
Ah! woe’s me, that I should Love and conceal,
Long have I wish’d, but never dare reveal,
Even though severely Loves Pains I feel;
Xerxes that great, was’t free from Cupids Dart,
And all the greatest Heroes, felt the smart.