Alongside The Story of the Malakand Field Force (1898), The River War (1899), and his novel Savrola (1899), Lord Randolph Churchill (1906), a two-volume biography of his father, stands as one of Churchill’s great early works. Theodore Roosevelt gave it a mixed review.

“I have been over Winston Churchill’s life of his father,” wrote Roosevelt to Henry Cabot Lodge. “I dislike the father and dislike the son, so I may be prejudiced. . . . Both the biographer and his subject possess some real farsightedness . . . [yet] they both possess or posset such levity, lack of sobriety, lack of permanent principle, and an inordinate thirst for that cheap form of admiration which is given to notoriety, as to make them poor public servants.”

TR wasn’t finished. In a letter to his son, TR Jr., he added that while he enjoyed LRC, he “can’t help feeling” that “the older one was a rather cheap character, and the younger one is a rather cheap character.”

Still, it wasn’t all bad. A couple years later, TR changed his tune on young Winston, enjoying Churchill’s 1908 book, My African Journey, immensely. In fact, in January 1909, WSC received his first letter from an American president:

My dear Mr Churchill:
Thru Mr Reid I have just received the beautiful copy of your book, and I wish to thank you for it. I had read all the chapters as they came out, and with a great deal of interest; not only the chapters upon the very difficult and important problems of the Government itself, but also the hunting chapters and especially the one describing how you got that rare and valuable trophy, a white rhinoceros head. Everyone has been most kind to me about my proposed trip to Africa. I trust I shall have as good luck as you had.
Again thanking you, believe me,
Sincerely yours,
Theodore Roosevelt

That’s quite a progression. Compare that note to TR’s initial impression of WSC after their first meeting in 1901 in Albany, when TR was Vice President-elect. “I saw the Englishman Winston Churchill here,” wrote TR. “And although not an attractive fellow, I was interested in some of the things he said.” As perhaps we Cornerites are with TR.

(h/t Martin Gilbert.)