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Will Rogers, cadet: A record of his two years as a cadet at the Kemper Military School, Boonville, Missouri

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Just 23 pages long and printed in September 1935 as a somewhat flimsy paperback, one could in fact argue that this hardly qualifies as a book. By its size and appearance, one might more readily believe it to be a brochure or booklet.

And the oddities of this work do not stop there. Consider the front cover. The book is entirely black and white- color printing in 1935, on so small a book as this? Ha!- and the cover is no different. It has a mostly gray background, a dark gray V that isn't centered quite right, the logo of Kemper Military School, and of course the title. That's what's so peculiar about it. "Cadet Days of Will Rogers" it reads, with no indication of who wrote it.
But then turn the page, and the title is "Will Rogers, Cadet, a Record of His Two Years at the Kemper Military School, Boonville, Missouri" by LTC Arthur M. Hitch, then-Superintendent of Kemper Military School.

So what's the title? "Cadet Days of Will Rogers" or "Will Rogers, Cadet, etc. etc."? The book presents us with one wacked-out conundrum. The cover has the first title, the interior title page the second one. But then on the back cover, beneath a photo of Kemper in 1897, there is some small black text stating "Copies of ''Cadet Days of Will Rogers'' may be obtained from Kemper Military School, Boonville, Missouri, Ten cents each- stamps or money."

Honestly, I am not sure what to call this book. I guess I'll just switch back and forth and assume nobody will notice and/or mind, which may have been what the wits at Kemper decided to do in 1935. Anyway.

That's not even the very end of the odd nature of this small book. The book's first two interior pages start at 2 and 3, meaning that the front cover must be page 1. I have never, ever come across another book that had such a setup.

But perhaps this is appropriate. Would Will Rogers have been more likely to approve of a squared-away and proper book about his days at KMS, or of one that had numerous oddities and contradictions on and between its covers? Methinks he'd have approved of the odder one.

LTC Hitch did good work in assembling this book, regardless. He looked through school records, sent letters to and/or personally spoke with those who had been staff or cadets when Rogers was at Kemper, ultimately aiming to assemble as thorough a record of his time at KMS as possible.
There are a number of black and white cartoons illustrating certain events Rogers was involved in at Kemper, a number of photos of him, and of others, such as Cap Lane, his brother in law, and Clem McSpadden, Rogers' nephew.

This book contained no great suprises for me, but many interesting and often humorous stories. It is quite impressive that Will Rogers managed to remain in the strict military environment of Kemper for one year, let alone two. Having gone not to Kemper but another school of the same type, I can say that somebody like Rogers would have driven the more serious cadets and staff members crazy. He was, from the sound of things, an erratic student and an enthusiastic comedian and prankster. He showed up in a none-too-subtle cowboy outfit on his first day, and his wear of the Kemper cadet uniform was sloppy. His favorite book, "Lyman's Historical Chart", was so partially because he actually did rather well in history, but the book's considerable size when opened- and the fact that this could conceal him and his antics from a teacher- could not have gone unnoticed by Rogers.

The overall account given here is that Will Rogers was a cheerful and good-natured young man, hardly a dumb one but simply not suited to any kind of disciplined or routine-based lifestyle. He is described as having been rather shy, and it is interesting that while some cadets and staff members remembered Will Rogers well, others had no specific memory of him at all. One Old Boy who had attended Kemper in 1897 or 1898 was interviewed close to the time of Rogers' death, and when the Kemper teacher interviewing him said that the famous Will Rogers this Old Boy knew of and the Kemper cadet Will Rogers he remembered were one and the same, the Old Boy was surprised to say the least. He'd never thought that the Will Rogers he'd attended Kemper Military School with could have been the same one the whole world had heard of.