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Ickes regarded himself as a conservationist in the mold of Theodore Roosevelt. As Secretary of the Interior he took a special interest in the administration of the National Parks Service. Between 1933 and 1941, the NPS lands increased from 8.2 million acres to over 20 million acres. He argued, unsuccessfully, for a comprehensive Wilderness Act, and for the expansion of the Department of Interior into the Department of Conservation.
The three-volume _ Secret Diary of Harold L. Ickes, _ published posthumously in 1953-1954, is Ickes’s own record of his official and personal life in Washington. Some portions of the original typescript, deemed too detailed or sensitive to persons still living to be published at that time, were excised. Drew University Library owns a photo-reproduction of most of this original typescript, with penciled copy edits as it was prepared for publication. The volumes are unprocessed but available for consultation.
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