Horses, friends, ragtime music, and steer roping-those were the interests of the youthful Will Rogers as he came of age in the Indian Territory and traveled to the Southern Hemisphere in this first of six definitive volumes of The Papers of Will Rogers. By separating fact from legend and unveiling new knowledge via extensive archival research, this documentary history represents a unique contribution to Rogers scholarship and to studies of the Cherokee Nation West. Using many previously unpublished letters and photographs-together with introductions, notes, and biographies of his friends and relatives-volume one illuminates Rogers’s complex relationship with his father, his Cherokee heritage, his early education, first encounters with his future wife, Betty Blake, his voyage to Argentina, and his fledging years in Wild West shows and circuses in South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia. Coorespondence, performance reviews, and rare newspaper documents spotlight the singular experiences that shaped the young Rogers within the context of his family, his ethnic background, and historical events. No other book describes so provocatively and authentically the genesis of America’s most beloved and influential humorist.

The Papers of Will Rogers: The Early Years, November 1879–April 1904

Biographies & Memoirs

Rogers Jr., Will

Arts & Literature

University of Oklahoma Press

The stage career of Will Rogers, one of America’s most influential humorists, began to take shape during the years covered by this documentary history, the second volume in The Papers of Will Rogers. 
Between 1904 and 1908, Rogers made the transition from Wild West shows to the vaudeville stage. During these early years, he developed and polished his act, blending his homespun humor with his cowboy skills of roping and horseback riding to the delight of his audience. At the same time he began courting Betty Blake, his future wife. Their on-again, off-again relationship matured as Rogers was realizing his goal of making a career in show business.
Along with Rogers’s personal correspondence, Arthur Frank Wertheim and Barbara Bair present theater programs, performance reviews, and newspaper clippings, all providing detailed snapshots of vaudeville at the beginning of the twentieth century. Much of this material, gleaned from private collections, interviews, and theater-arts collections in New York City and across the country, has never before been published in any form.

Papers of Will Rogers : Wild West and Vaudeville, April 1904-September 1908, Volume Two

Travel

This third volume of The Papers of Will Rogers documents the evolution of Rogers’s vaudeville career as well as the newlywed life of Will and Betty Blake Rogers and the birth of their children. During these years, the Rogerses moved to New York City, and after many years of performing with Buck McKee and horse Teddy, Rogers began a solo act in vaudeville as a talking, roping cowboy. He appeared on the same playbill with such performers as Fred Stone, Eddie Cantor, and Houdini, and his stage career expanded to include an appearance in the Broadway musical comedy "The Wall Street Girl." Volume Three ends with Rogers’s successful transition from vaudeville to Broadway, on the brink of his breakthrough as a star of the Ziegfeld Follies.

The Papers of Will Rogers: From Vaudeville to Broadway, September 1908–August 1915

In the early years of his performing career, Will Rogers was a vaudeville performer of limited prominence. Around the age of thirty-five, however, this Oklahoma cowboy philosopher shed his role as local stage entertainer and moved toward fame as a Broadway star and nationally beloved humorist. This documentary history, volume four in the definitive five-volume Papers of Will Rogers, reveals Rogers’s personal and professional transformation during what may have been the most productive period of his diverse career. Between 1915 and 1928—the years covered by this volume—Rogers developed his unique monologues of topical humor, sampled the relatively new medium of radio, and pursued a career in silent films. He also tried his voice in sound recordings, witnessed his work as a writer reach millions of readers of daily newspapers, became one of the most sought-after speakers on the dinner circuit, and embarked on a three-year tour of the nation’s lecture halls. In addition to Rogers’s personal correspondence with family members and friends, editors Steven K. Gragert and M. Jane Johansson present more than one hundred letters and telegrams to and from people Rogers touched both inside and outside public life, including prominent figures in politics, show business, literature, industry, government, publishing, and the arts. Much of this material, gleaned from private collections, interviews, manuscripts, and sound recordings, has never before been published.

The Papers of Will Rogers: From Broadway to the National Stage September 1915–July 1928

Humor & Entertainment

This fifth and final volume of The Papers of Will Rogers traces the career of Oklahoma’s beloved entertainer during his most popular years and extends beyond his death in 1935.
 By 1928, the Oklahoma humorist and commentator had reached national prominence through his newspaper columns, silent films, sound recordings, books, philanthropic endeavors, and lecture tours. His fame, fortune, and influence, however, had yet to crest. This volume showcases a wide variety of documents, including correspondence with some of the most significant figures of the day, revealing Rogers’s rise to fame as the nation’s leading social and political commentator and as a hugely popular star of radio, stage, and film.
 Rogers’s multifaceted career ended abruptly when he and the famous aviator Wylie Post died in an airplane crash in northernmost Alaska. This documentary history of his final years includes transcripts of radio broadcasts, contracts, and business documents, as well as nearly two hundred telegrams and letters to family, friends, and notable public figures—the majority of which have never before been published. It also covers the aftermath of his fatal airplane accident: the certificate of death, a first-person account of his funeral, settlement of his estate, efforts to pay tribute to his memory, and unauthorized attempts to capitalize on his fame.

The Papers of Will Rogers: The Final Years, August 1928–August 1935

Will Rogers was a one-man news and entertainment industry at the time of his tragic death in 1935. We know Rogers’ public persona from his surviving movies, syndicated newspaper column, and recorded radio performances. But less is commonly known about Rogers the private man. This book reveals much about his origins and early years―in the words of the “Indian Cowboy” himself. Born into a wealthy part-Cherokee family in Indian Territory, Will answered the call of adventure at age twenty-two and embarked on a two-year trek, entertaining audiences in England, South America, Africa, New Zealand, and Australia. Rogers wrote letters home―wonderful letters in which he focuses his remarkable powers of observation on people and places with cultures very different from his own. And he wrote to Betty Blake, the Arkansas girl he courted by mail, and occasionally in person, for eight long years. At last, these letters are available to a wide readership.

Will Rogers, Courtship and Correspondence, 1900–1915

Collins, Reba

Rogers, James Blake

Quaid Publishing

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