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.

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.

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

(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).

(1869-1946)

1899	The 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.
1900	Monsieur 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.
1908	The 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.
1914	Penrod. 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).
1915	The Turmoil. The first novel of a trilogy depicting Midwestern city life. It would be followed by The Magnificent Ambersons (1918) and The Midlander (1923).
1916	Seventeen. 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.
1918	The 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).
1919	Clarence. 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.
1921	Alice 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.
1927	The 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.
1941	The 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.
1943	Kate Fennigate. This novel, a comedy of manners, looks at the complications that arise when the heroine tries to control those around her.
1945	The 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:

"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."

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