In Search Of Greatness

November 26, 1985|By Michael Kilian.

Ronald Reagan has chosen Edmund Morris, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of ``The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt,`` as the chronicler of his life and presidency.

--News item.

The author sat down at his typewriter. Teddy Roosevelt had proved such a rich subject. Surely Ronald Reagan, one of the most beloved presidents of the nuclear age, would provide the same kind of material.

Both Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan were born, Teddy in New York City and Reagan in Tampico, Ill. Teddy`s father was a good friend of Abraham Lincoln`s and a noted philantrophist who taught Teddy, ``Take care of your morals first, your health next, and finally your studies.`` Ronny`s father was a failed alcoholic salesman who ended up working for a federal welfare program.

As a small boy, Teddy became an amateur naturalist, writing an entire book, ``Natural History on Insects,`` at the age of 10. At age 12, he had visited most of the countries of Europe. Afflicted with crippling asthma, he undertook a vigorous exercise and body-building program to overcome his handicap.

Ronny grew up in Dixon, Ill., where one of his most memorable experiences was dragging his drunken father off the porch and into the house. Teddy went to Harvard, where despite extracurricular activities ranging from poetry readings to the boxing team, he published another book on naturalism, began a naval history of the War of 1812 and graduated 21st in a class of 177.

Ronny went to Eureka College and made the football team.

At the age of 23, Teddy was elected to the New York state legislature, where he took on Jay Gould and other corrupt robber barons and fought New York City sweatshops.

Ronny became a radio announcer and sportscaster. He went to Hollywood.

Teddy became a corruption-fighting member of the U.S. Civil Service Commission and president of the New York Police Board. He was made assistant secretary of the Navy.

Ronny made ``Juke Girl`` and several other movies.

When the Spanish-American War broke out, Teddy organized a volunteer cavalry regiment known as the Rough Riders and led it to victory in a daring charge up San Juan Hill.

When World War II broke out, Ronny joined the Army Air Forces as a captain stationed in Hollywood, where he made training films. He also made such movies as ``Hellcats of the Navy.``

In quick succession, Teddy was elected governor of New York and vice president. Ronny was elected president of the Screen Actors Guild and governor of California.

Teddy was inaugurated president at the age of 42; Ronny at the age of 69. Teddy devoted his presidency to busting up big business trusts, cleaning up the drug and meat packing industries, digging the Panama Canal, reforming the railroad system and setting aside vast acres of wilderness for the public. He created a huge naval fleet which he sent around the world as a deterrent to war.

Ronny devoted his presidency to cutting income taxes for the wealthy and setting aside vast acres of public wilderness for strip mines and oil rigs. He created a huge naval fleet which his Navy secretary ordered kept in port six months of the year because it cost so much to build the nation couldn`t afford to operate it.

As president, Teddy read Tacitus and Milton and wrote more books of his own. He was a loving father who had pillow fights with his children in the White House and allowed them to sit on his lap in the Oval Office. Ronny told interviewers he read every comic strip in the Washington Post every day. It wasn`t until his re-eelection campaign that he met with his grandchildren for the first time.

The author sat back just as Reagan aide and confidante Mike Deaver came in.

``Why that`s wonderful,`` Deaver said. ``You`ve finished 12 pages.``

``Not only that,`` said the author. ``I`ve finished the book.``