Jules Verne’s ‘most prized possession’. Help needed please on Kermit Roosevelt’s letter to Jules Verne

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John Lamb

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Apr 11, 2026, 3:50:54 PMApr 11

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Dear all,

Can anyone help me trace the transcript of this letter written to Jules Verne by the then 15-year-old Kermit Roosevelt in I believe 1904? All I have found out is what is cobbled together from Google Books including Great Adventures in Science - Page 309 and A Contemporary Rhetoric - Page 435.

Together it says this

“Jules Verne, an intensely patriotic Frenchman fell in love with America. He was captivated by the great spaces, the adventurous character of its people, the sweep of its engineering heroes. Washington and Lincoln were his heroes, and …???…his most prized possession though, was a letter on White House stationery from Kermit Roosevelt, who wrote , " My father (Theodore Roosevelt ) asks me to mention that he has read all your books and enjoyed them immensely. "

I have two questions.

Does anyone have a transcript of this letter? If so could they post it on the forum.

What was the source of Verne saying it was his ‘most prized possession? Was it Verne himself or someone else, if so ...who?

It intrigues me that Jules Verne is putting a letter from a 15-year-old boy as his ‘most prized possession’, even above his 1870 Légion d'honneur and other honours and possessions he accumulated in the 76 years previously.

Theodore Roosevelt corresponded and met personally with dozens of world-famous authors including Mark Twain, J.M. Barrie, H.G. Wells and Kenneth Grahame. He was a personal friend of Rudyard Kipling and read literally thousands of novels (some say up to three books a day). A letter from the President himself was not that unusual in literary circles. The Rudyard Kipling website even has Roosevelt as the possible inspiration / part inspiration for Kipling's If.

You can see the breadth of Roosevelt's reading here

What Theodore Roosevelt Read in a Two-Year Period

Roosevelt is also said to have written over 150,000 personal letters in his lifetime and so it strikes me as very odd that Verne’s most prized possession was a letter about Theodore Roosevelt reading all his books (he read all the books of many authors) but, a letter not even signed by him but by his 15 year old son.

At the very least this shows an overwhelming admiration for the author, politician, adventurer and explorer, Theodore Roosevelt by Jules Verne and so it advance our knowledge about Jules Verne relationship with America and Americans just that little bit more.

Roosevelt's family were split 50:50 Confederate Unionist in the American Civil War, his father was a personal friend of Abraham Lincoln and his mother was a personal friend of Jefferson Davis and all this must have fascinated Verne.

Some on the forum may remember that last year I proposed that the character of the 15 year old natural historian and bookworm Harbert (Herbert) privately tutored by the best professors in Boston in The Mysterious Island (in 1873) was modelled on the then 15-year-old amateur natural historian and bookworm Theodore Roosevelt who at the time was being tutored by Arthur Cutler of Harvard (Boston) and listed 20 similarities both pre and post the publication of The Mysterious Island.

Since then I have discovered that Kermit Roosevelt saved his father's life in the Amazon in 1909 by administering quinine for his bout of malaria - yet another parallel between Roosevelt and the character of Harbert / Herbert.

Any information gratefully received and fully acknowledged as I hope to do an academic paper on the Roosevelt and Harbert / Herbert connection in the next 12 months.