Tarkington, Booth (1869 - 1946)

Genre: General Fiction

Booth Tarkington, prolific novelist and playwright, wrote "cheerful, realistic novels about life in the Middle West," including two Pulitzer Prize winners.

Born in Indianapolis on 29 July 1869, Tarkington traveled throughout Europe and North America, and eventually built an estate called Seawood in Kennebunkport, Maine where he and his second wife, Susannah Robinson, lived from May through December each year, returning to Indianapolis for the balance.

Tarkington had a middle-class upbringing in Indianapolis. He attended Purdue University and then Princeton University (class of 1893), graduating from neither. He was editor of the Nassau Literary Magazine at Princeton, which later awarded him both an honorary A.M. (1899) and an honorary Litt.D. (1918).

In 1893, Tarkington returned to Indianapolis and tried to make a living from drawing and writing. A period of rejections followed his sale of a sketch with text to Life magazine in 1895, but finally, in 1898, Tarkington's manuscript The Gentleman from Indiana was accepted for publication by New York publisher S.S. McClure and became a bestseller in 1900, launching a long and financially successful literary career.

The 1921 Publishers Weekly poll of booksellers rated him the most significant contemporary American author, above Sinclair Lewis, Robert Frost and Carl Sandburg. His short story, 'Cider of Normandy,'won the 1931 O. Henry Memorial Award.

Tarkington died on 19 May 1946.

Selected Bibliography

  • Gentleman from Indiana (1899)
  • Monsieur Beaucaire (1900)
  • Two Vanrevels (1902)
  • Cherry (1903)
  • The Conquest of Canaan (1905)
  • In the Arena: Stories of Political Life (1905)
  • The Beautiful Lady (1905)
  • His Own People (1907)
  • The Man From Home, a Play in Four Acts (1908)
  • Guest of Quesnay (1908)
  • Beasley's Christmas Party (1909)
  • The Flirt (1912 )
  • Beauty and the Jacobin; An Interlude of the French Revolution (1912)
  • Penrod (1914)
  • The Turmoil: A Novel (1915 )
  • Seventeen: A Tale of Youth and Summer Time and the Baxter Family, Especially William (1915)
  • Penrod and Sam (1916)
  • The Ohio Lady (1916)
  • Harlequin and Columbine, and other stories... (1918)
  • The Magnificent Ambersons (1918) Pulitzer Prize Winner
  • Gentle Julia (1918)
  • Ramsey Milholland (1919)
  • The Gibson Upright (1919)
  • Clarence; a Comedy in Four Acts (1921)
  • The Country Cousin; a Comedy in Four Acts (1921)
  • Alice Adams (1922) Pulitzer Prize winner
  • Ghost Story; a One-Act Play for Persons of No Great Age (1922)
  • The Wren; A Comedy in Three Acts (1922)
  • Works [Seawood Edition] (1922)
  • The Collector's Whatnot (1923)
  • Midlander (1923)
  • The Fascinating Stranger, and other stories (1923)
  • Trysting Place; A Farce in One Act (1923)
  • Tweedles, A Comedy (1924)
  • Cherry, and Beasley's Christmas Party (1925)
  • Women (1925)
  • Bimbo, the Pirate (1926)
  • Looking Forward, and others (1926)
  • Growth (1927)
  • The Plutocrat, a Novel (1927)
  • Station YYYY (1927)
  • The Travelers: A One-Act Play (1927)
  • The World Does Move (1928)
  • Claire Ambler (1928)
  • Young Mrs. Greeley (1929)
  • Penrod Jashber (1929)
  • How's Your Health? A Comedy in Three Acts (1930)
  • Mirthful Haven (1930)
  • Penrod, His Complete Story (1931)
  • The Works of Booth Tarkington (1902-1932)
  • Mary's Neck (1932)
  • Wanton Mally: A Romance of England in the Days of Charles II (1932)
  • Presenting Lily Mars (1933)
  • Help Each Other Club (1934)
  • Little Orvie (1934)
  • Mister Antonio; a Play in Four Acts (1935)
  • Mr. White. The Red barn. Hell, and Bridewater (1935)
  • Lorenzo Bunch (1936)
  • Rumbin Galleries (1937)
  • Some Old Portraits: A Book About Art and Human Beings (1939)
  • The Heritage of Hatcher Ide (1941)
  • The Fighting Littles (1941)
  • Kate Fennigate (1943)
  • The Gentleman from Indianapolis: A Treasury of Booth Tarkington (1944)
  • Lady Hamilton and Her Nelson (1945)
  • Image of Josephine (1945)
  • The Show Piece (1947; his last novel)
  • Your Amiable Uncle; Letters to His Nephews by Booth Tarkington (1949: illus. with his original sketches)
  • Dr. [Erwin] Panofsky and Booth Tarkington, An Exchange of Letters 1938-1946 (1974)

Selected Resources