Tarkington, Booth (1869-1946), was an American novelist and dramatist. His writings are considered one of the best mirrors of the wholesome aspects of life in the Middle West.
Tarkington’s works range from the sentimentally romantic Monsieur Beaucaire (1900) to the humor of Penrod (1914) and the realism of Alice Adams (1921). A trilogy of novels called Growth (1927) presents a cross section of city life such as it was in his hometown, Indianapolis. The trilogy consists of The Turmoil (1915), The Magnificent Ambersons (1918), and The Midlander (1923). Penrod, Penrod and Sam (1916), and Seventeen (1916) portray the joys and problems of young people.
Tarkington also published plays, short stories, and essays. He was amiable, optimistic, and somewhat passive in emphasizing the smiling aspects of life and the joys of boyhood. Tarkington was awarded two Pulitzer Prizes for literature, in 1919 and 1922, for The Magnificent Ambersons and Alice Adams.
Tarkington was born on July 29, 1869, in Indianapolis. He was elected to the Indiana House of Representatives for the 1902-1903 term. He was a neighbor and admirer of the poet James Whitcomb Riley, and a devotee of William Dean Howells and Mark Twain. Tarkington also wrote some of the verses that were sung in the Ziegfeld Follies in the early 1900’s. Several of Tarkington’s short stories dealing with political life were collected into one work entitled In the Arena. He also wrote The Gentleman from Indiana (1899), The Beautiful Lady (1905), Beauty and the Jacobin, an Interlude of the French Revolution (1912), and The Plutocrat (1927). He died on May 19, 1946.
