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Booth Tarkington

 
American Theater Guide: [Newton] Booth Tarkington
 
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Tarkington, [Newton] Booth (1869–1946), playwright. The famed Indiana novelist first achieved theatrical success when he dramatized his novel Monsieur Beaucaire (often known simply as Beaucaire) with Evelyn Greenleaf Sutherland in 1901. With Harry Leon Wilson he wrote The Man from Home (1908) and Cameo Kirby (1909), and for Otis Skinner he wrote Mister Antonio (1916). Tarkington's other collaborations included The Country Cousin (1917) and Tweedles (1923), while on his own he penned Clarence (1919), Intimate Strangers (1921), and Colonel Satan (1931). Several of his novels were dramatized by others, including Seventeen (1918), Penrod (1918), and The Plutocrat (1930). Tarkington was much admired for his warm, homey humor, but like his novels, there was an underlying melancholy present as well. Biography: Gentleman from Indiana, J. Woodress, 1955.

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Biography: Newton Booth Tarkington
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The prolific writings of American author Newton Booth Tarkington (1869-1946) include the novels "Penrod" and "Seventeen" and many successful Broadway plays.

Booth Tarkington was born on July 29, 1869, the second child of lawyer John S. Tarkington and Elizabeth Booth Tarkington, in Indianapolis, Ind., a city which was always his home. His childhood was as happy and secure as his doting, well-educated, church-going, and prosperous parents could make it. He showed an early interest in writing and, like his fictional Penrod, produced his plays in the family hayloft. After mediocre achievement in high school he was sent to Phillips Exeter Academy.

The family suffered financial difficulties, so Tarkington entered first a local business college and then Purdue University to study art. When family fortunes revived, his mother insisted on sending him to Princeton, from which he could not receive a degree because he lacked the requisite classics background, but where he acquired a broad education and formed many associations which served him well during his life. He left Princeton in 1893 and spent the next 5 years writing, without much success in publishing his work. After McClure's Magazine serialized The Gentleman from Indiana in 1899, his novels and short stories appeared regularly in it and other magazines. In 1902 he married Louisa Fletcher and served one term in the Indiana Legislature as a conservative Republican. In 1903 he made his first trip to Europe, to which he returned regularly. A daughter was born in 1906.

From 1907 to 1910 Tarkington spent his time writing plays, mostly comedies such as Your Humble Servant and Springtime (both 1909), many in collaboration with Harry Wilson and Julian Street. Between 1914 and 1924 he wrote some plays and a trilogy of novels chronicling the rise and fall of family fortunes in midwestern industrial society. One of these, The Magnificent Ambersons (1918), was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1919. His best novel, Alice Adams (1920), also received the Pulitzer Prize. During these years he produced his famous characters modeled on his own boyhood, the title character of Penrod (1914) and Penrod and Sam (1916) and Willie Baxter of Seventeen (1916). During both world wars he devoted much effort to writing Allied propaganda.

In 1911 his first wife divorced him, and in 1912 he married Susanah Robinson. They had no children; his daughter, Laurel, died in 1923. Tarkington began losing his eyesight in the late 1920s, and he was blind in his later years. He learned to dictate and continued to write. On May 19, 1946, he died in Indianapolis.

Further Reading

The first full-length critical biography of Tarkington is James Woodress, Booth Tarkington: Gentleman from Indiana (1955). Tarkington's novels are treated in Carl Van Doren, The American Novel, 1789-1939 (1940), and Edward Wagenknecht, Cavalcade of the American Novel (1952).

Additional Sources

Mayberry, Susanah, My amiable uncle: recollections about Booth Tarkington, West Lafayette, Ind.: Purdue University Press, 1983.

Tarkington, Booth, The world does move, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1976.

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Newton Booth Tarkington
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(born July 29, 1869, Indianapolis, Ind., U.S. — died May 19, 1946, Indianapolis) U.S. novelist and dramatist. He became known for satirical and sometimes romanticized pictures of Midwesterners in humorous portrayals of boyhood and adolescence that include the young-people's classics Penrod (1914), Seventeen (1916), and Gentle Julia (1922). The trilogy Growth (1927) includes The Magnificent Ambersons (1918, Pulitzer Prize; film, 1942), which traces the decline of a once-powerful and prominent family. Alice Adams (1921; film, 1923, 1935), a searching character study, is perhaps his most finished novel.

For more information on Newton Booth Tarkington, visit Britannica.com.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Booth Tarkington
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Tarkington, Booth (Newton Booth Tarkington), 1869–1946, American author, b. Indianapolis. His most characteristic and popular works were his genial novels of life in small Middle Western towns, including The Gentleman from Indiana (1899), The Conquest of Canaan (1905), and the trilogy Growth (1927), made up of Turmoil (1915), The Magnificent Ambersons (1918; Pulitzer Prize), and The Midlander (1923). Alice Adams (1921; Pulitzer Prize), considered by some his best novel, tells of the frustrated ambitions of a romantic lower-middle-class girl. He wrote several amusing novels of boyhood and adolescence, the most notable being Penrod (1914) and Seventeen (1916). His plays include a dramatization of his own historical romance Monsieur Beaucaire (1901) and Clarence (1921).

Bibliography

See his reminiscences, The World Does Move (1928); biography by J. L. Woodress (1955, repr. 1969); study by K. J. Fennimore (1974).

 
Works: Works by Booth Tarkington
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(1869-1946)

1899The Gentleman from Indiana. The Midwestern novelist and playwright's first novel depicts a crusading newspaper editor fighting corruption in his small Indiana hometown. It becomes the first in a series of Tarkington's novels depicting Midwestern life.
1900Monsieur Beaucaire. Tarkington achieves a popular success in this historical romance. It features a French duke who goes to England disguised as a barber during the reign of Louis XV.
1908The Man from Home. Tarkington's jingoistic drama shows a man from Indiana exposing the villainy of an English nobleman. Critic Walter Prichard Eaton calls it "an excellent bad play." It would be performed for six consecutive theatrical seasons for a total of 496 performances.
1914Penrod. One of the author's most popular works is a humorous portrait of boyhood in a typical small Midwestern city. It would spawn the sequels Penrod and Sam (1916), Penrod Jashber (1929), and the omnibus volume Penrod: His Complete Story (1931).
1915The Turmoil. The first novel of a trilogy depicting Midwestern city life. It would be followed by The Magnificent Ambersons (1918) and The Midlander (1923).
1916Seventeen. Following his success in capturing boyhood in Penrod (1914), Tarkington tackles adolescence and youthful love in this novel about Willie Baxter's infatuation with the baby-talking Lola Pratt. The author's biographer, James Woodress, would call it "one of the superb comedies of adolescence." Another Penrod novel, Penrod and Sam, also appears.
1918The Magnificent Ambersons. The second novel in a trilogy depicting life in a Midwestern city, which had begun with The Turmoil (1915) and would conclude with The Midlands (1923). It traces the decline of a complacent American family unable to cope with the changes brought by progress. A winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the novel would be adapted as a film by Orson Welles in 1942, his follow-up to his first film, Citizen Kane (1941).
1919Clarence. Tarkington's comedy about a seemingly bumbling ex-soldier who comes to the aid of a family in disarray is hailed by critic Heywood Broun as "the best light comedy which has been written by an American." It features a star-making performance by Alfred Lunt (1892-1980) and typecasts Helen Hayes (1900-1993) as a flapper.
1921Alice Adams. Tarkington wins his second Pulitzer Prize for this novel about the attempt of a lower-middle-class Midwestern girl to catch a rich husband. The book is praised for its realistic depiction of American life without the idealization that had marred Tarkington's previous work.
1927The Plutocrat. Tarkington's novel depicts a self-made American businessman who travels in Europe. It would be adapted for film as Business and Pleasure in 1931.
1941The Heritage of Hatcher Ide. Tarkington continues his documentation of Midwestern life during the Depression. In the story, the title character returns from college, confident that a position is waiting for him in the family business, only to discover that the firm has collapsed. He must then adjust to a life of diminished prospects.
1943Kate Fennigate. This novel, a comedy of manners, looks at the complications that arise when the heroine tries to control those around her.
1945The Image of Josephine. Tarkington's portrait of the modern woman shows a self-centered snob challenged to reform by a shell-shocked war veteran.

 
Quotes By: Booth Tarkington
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Quotes:

"There are two things that will be believed of any man whatsoever, and one of them is that he has taken to drink."

"Cherish all your happy moments; they make a fine cushion for old age."

"Arguments only confirm people in their own opinions."

"An ideal wife is any woman who has an ideal husband."

 
Wikipedia: Booth Tarkington
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Booth Tarkington

Newton Booth Tarkington (July 29, 1869, Indianapolis – May 19, 1946) was an American novelist and dramatist best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novels The Magnificent Ambersons and Alice Adams.

Contents

Biography

Booth Tarkington was the son of John S. Tarkington and Elizabeth Booth Tarkington, and named after his maternal uncle Newton Booth, then the governor of California. Tarkington was also related to Chicago Mayor James Hutchinson Woodworth [1848-1850].

Tarkington first attended Shortridge High School, but completed his secondary education at Phillips Exeter Academy, a boarding school on the East Coast.[1] Tarkington attended Purdue University for two years, then transferred to Princeton University for another two years, but never officially graduated from either. Booth Tarkington made substantial donations to Purdue for the building of an all-men's residence hall, which the university named Tarkington Hall,in his honor. It also awarded him an honorary degree.[2]

At Princeton, Tarkington was active as a student-actor in what is now known as "The Triangle Club." According to Triangle's official history,[3] Tarkington made his first acting appearance in the club's Shakespearean spoof "Katherine" (this was one of the first three productions in the Club's history that was written and produced by Princeton students, a tradition maintained to the present day). Tarkington returned to the Triangle stage as Cassius in the 1893 production "The Honorable Julius Caesar." Tarkington gained prominence that year at Princeton as a co-author of the play, and as the President of Princeton's Dramatic Association (the name of the club before it was officially changed to "The Triangle Club"). In addition to his membership in and role as founder of The Triangle Club, he was also a member of the Ivy Club, the first of Princeton's historic Eating Clubs. At Princeton he also edited the "Nassau Literary Magazine". Tarkington failed to earn his undergraduate degree, the A.B., due to a single missing course in the classics. Nevertheless, his place within campus society was already determined, as he was voted most popular in the class for 1893. In his adult life, he was asked to return to Princeton on two occasions for the conferral of two honorary degrees, an A.M. in 1899 and a Litt.D. in 1918. The conferral of more than one honorary degree on an alumnus at Princeton University remains a record for the institution.

Many aspects of Tarkington's Princeton years forecast those of the writer F. Scott Fitzgerald who, while an undergraduate nearly 25 years later, also reveled in the literary arts and socialized in the Eating Clubs of Prospect Avenue, but failed to earn his degree as well.

In 1902 Tarkington became a Republican State Representative in the Indiana government. He served one term.[4]

Tarkington was a world traveller who spent much of his later life in Kennebunkport Maine, and left his papers to Colby College. At the same time, he was also an unabashed Midwestern regionalist, and set much of his fiction in his native Indiana. One of the more popular American novelists of his time, his The Two Vanrevels and Mary's Neck appeared on the annual best-seller lists a total of nine times. The Penrod novels depict a typical upper-middle class American boy of 1910 vintage, revealing a fine, bookish sense of American humor.

Tarkington dramatized several of his novels; some were eventually filmed. In 1928, he published a book of reminiscences, The World Does Move. He illustrated the books of others, including a 1933 reprint of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, as well as his own. He took a close interest in fine art and collectibles, and was a trustee of the John Herron Art Museum. In 1902, he served in the Indiana House of Representatives, which supplied the experiences for his book In the Arena: Stories of Political Life.

Tarkington was married to Laurel Fletcher from 1902 until their divorce in 1911. Their only child, Laurel was born in 1906 and died in 1923.[5] He married Susanah Keifer Robinson in 1912. They had no children.[6]

Tarkington began losing his eyesight in the 1920s and was blind in his later years. He continued producing his works by dictating to a secretary.[5] He lived at 4270 North Meridian in Indianapolis from 1923 until his death.[1] He is buried in Crown Hill Cemetery, Marion County, Indianapolis, Indiana.[7]

Much of Tarkington's work consists of satirical and closely observed studies of the American class system and its foibles. He himself came from a patrician family that lost much of its wealth after the Panic of 1873 (after a measure of wealth returned, his mother transferred him to Princeton University to complete his education). Today, he is best known for his novel The Magnificent Ambersons, which Orson Welles filmed in 1942. It is included in the Modern Library's list of top-100 novels. The second volume in Tarkington's Growth trilogy, it contrasted the decline of the "old money" Amberson dynasty against the rise of "new money" industrial tycoons in the years between the Civil War and World War I.

Bibliography

Julia; frontispiece of a 1922 New York publication of Gentle Julia, by Booth Tarkington
  • The Gentleman from Indiana (1899)
  • Monsieur Beaucaire (1900; later adapted as a play, an operetta and two films—1924 and 1946)
  • Old Grey Eagle (1901)
  • Cherry (1901 - January, February Harper's Magazine) (1903 - Book)
  • The Two Vanrevels (1902)
  • Poe's Run: and other poems . . to which is appended the book of the chronicles of the Elis (1904) - co-author, with M'Cready Sykes
  • In the Arena: Stories of Political Life (1905)
  • The Beautiful Lady (1905)
  • The Conquest of Canaan (1905)
  • The Guest of Quesnay (1907)
  • His Own People (1907)
  • Beasley's Christmas Party (1909)
  • Your Humble Servant (1910)
  • Beauty and the Jacobin, an Interlude of the French Revolution (1912)
  • The Flirt (1913)
  • Penrod (1914)
  • The Man from Home (1915) - stage play
  • The Turmoil (1915) (first volume of the trilogy Growth)
  • Penrod and Sam (1916)
  • Seventeen (1916)
  • The Spring Concert (1916)
  • The Rich Man's War (1917)
  • The Magnificent Ambersons (1918; won the 1919 Pulitzer Prize; filmed 1941 by Orson Welles, remade for TV in 2002; second volume of the trilogy Growth)
  • The Gibson Upright (1919) - stage play
  • Ramsey Mulholland (1919)
  • War Stories (1919) - one of Tarkington's stories was included in this anthology
  • The Country Cousins: A Comedy in Four Acts (1921) - stage play
  • Clarence: A Comedy in Four Acts (1921) - stage play
  • Harlequin and Columbine (1921)
  • Alice Adams (1921; won the 1922 Pulitzer Prize; filmed 1935)
  • The Intimate Strangers: A Comedy in Three Acts (1921) - stage play
  • Gentle Julia (1922)
  • The Wren: A Comedy in Three Acts (1922) - stage play
  • The Ghost Story (1922)
  • The Midlander (1924) (1927 re-titled National Avenue; third volume of the trilogy Growth)
  • Women (1925)
  • Looking Forward, and Others, consisting of "Looking Forward to the Great Adventure", "Nipskillions", "The Hopeful Pessimist", "Stars in the Dust-heap", "The Golden Age", and "Happiness Now" (1926)
  • The Plutocrat (1927)
  • Claire Ambler (1928)
  • The World Does Move (1928)
  • Penrod Jashber (1929)
  • Mirthful Haven (1930)
  • Mary's Neck (1932)
  • Presenting Lily Mars (1933) (filmed 1943)
  • Rumbin Galleries (1934) - essays on 17th century artworks
  • Little Orvie (1934)
  • Some Old Portraits (1939) - essays on 17th century artworks
  • The Fighting Littles (1941)
  • The Heritage of Hatcher Ide (1941)
  • Kate Fennigate (1943)
  • Image of Josephine (1945)
  • The Show Piece (1947)

References

  1. ^ a b Price, Nelson (2004). Indianapolis Then & Now. San Diego, California: Thunder Bay Press. pp. 122. ISBN 1-59223-208-6. http://books.google.com/books?id=LGkIAAAACAAJ&dq=Indianapolis+Then+%26+Now&ei=Rb9SSZ3HKJSyMNa0udYP. 
  2. ^ http://www.housing.purdue.edu/HTML/HOUSTarkington.htm
  3. ^ www.princeton.edu/~triangle/content_page/history.html
  4. ^ http://www.bookrags.com/biography/newton-booth-tarkington
  5. ^ a b "bookrags.com"
  6. ^ http://www.online-literature.com/tarkington/
  7. ^ http://"online-literature.com"

^http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/t/booth-tarkington/

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21 December 1925		 Succeeded by
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American Theater Guide. The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. Copyright © 2004 by Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Biography. © 2006 through a partnership of Answers Corporation. All rights reserved.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/  Read more
Works. The Chronology of American Literature, edited by Daniel S. Burt. Copyright © 2004 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Quotes By. Copyright © 2008 QuotationsBook.com. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Booth Tarkington".  Read more

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