Will Rogers, Courtship and Correspondence, 1900–1915

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.