Booth Tarkington

by Booth Tarkington

  1896

  Works on a novel about the theater. Returns to Indianapolis in the spring. Writes play set during the French Revolution, the basis for the one-act comedy “Mlle de Marmontel,” which is performed by the Indianapolis Dramatic Club in November with Tarkington in the cast. Contributes pseudonymous poems, prose pieces, and drawings to the short-lived little magazine John-a-Dreams, based in Greenwich Village. His work elicits admiring letter to the magazine from Helen Pitkin, whom by coincidence Tar­kington had met in New Orleans when he was fifteen, and they begin a spirited correspondence.

  1897–98

  Writes novella Monsieur Beaucaire, set in eighteenth-century England, but cannot get it published. Death in December 1897 of John Cleve Green, a Princeton friend to whom he will dedicate The Gentleman from Indiana. Resumes working on The Gentleman from Indiana, which he had abandoned nearly five years earlier. Late in 1898, his sister, without his knowledge, attempts to sell Monsieur Beaucaire to the publisher S. S. McClure while in New York and, though unsuccessful, interests him in The Gentleman from Indiana, now nearly complete.

  1899

  Manuscript of The Gentleman from Indiana is read by the novelist Hamlin Garland, who writes Tarkington: “You are a novelist.” McClure accepts the manuscript and requests that Tarkington come to New York as soon as possible to cut it down for serial publication. Leaves Indianapolis at the end of January and is greeted enthusiastically at McClure’s offices, where he meets not only the publisher but also Garland and the journalist Ida Tarbell. During a stay at McClure’s house on Long Island, makes cuts to The Gentleman from Indiana. Turns down McClure’s offer of an editorial position at his firm and an invitation to join him on a European trip the following summer. Attends dinner hosted by F. N. Doubleday, a member of McClure’s company, and meets Rudyard Kipling. Serialization of The Gentleman from Indiana in McClure’s Magazine begins in May; Monsieur Beaucaire is serialized there starting in December. Book version of The Gentleman from Indiana is published in October and sells well, the first of many popular successes (in the next fifty years, more than five million copies of his books will be sold). In November, guides William Dean Howells around Indianapolis before Howells gives a lecture and attends dinner for the eminent author and editor organized by Tarkington’s sister; other guests include former president Benjamin Harrison, a family friend. Howells tells Tarkington he has read and liked The Gentleman from Indiana.

  1900–01

  Writes twelve weekly book columns for the Indianapolis Press from January through May. Visits Louisiana and becomes engaged to Helen Pitkin, but the engagement is broken after her grandmother objects and makes Tar­kington promise not to write her for several months. Monsieur Beaucaire is brought out in book form by McClure, Phillips & Co. in May 1900, but McClure discourages Tarkington from publishing Cherry, a historical romance set in eighteenth-century New Jersey. Evelyn Sutherland, a drama critic and playwright from Boston, offers to assist with a stage adaptation of Monsieur Beaucaire, which Tarkington starts work on, ceding one-third of the stage rights to her. The actor Richard Mansfield agrees to perform the play with his company but demands, over Sutherland’s objections (and threats of litigation), that the play be further revised during rehearsals, which Tarkington assents to. Finishes play about a United States senator, The Man on Horseback, which is not produced until 1912. Monsieur Beaucaire begins pre-Broadway tryouts in Philadelphia on October 7, 1900. Returns to Indiana and begins work on historical novel The Two Vanrevels. Cherry is serialized in Harper’s in January and February 1901. Meets Louisa Fletcher (b. 1878), a banker’s daughter and Smith College graduate, and soon begins courting her.

  1902

  Enters Republican primary for a seat in the Indiana House of Representatives and wins handily, without campaigning. In April, finishes The Two Vanrevels, which is published in October. Holds party for Woodrow Wilson, whom he had known at Princeton. Makes a curtain call during performance of Monsieur Beaucaire, now on tour after its relatively brief Broadway run. Travels east, visiting New York City and Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Marries Louisa Fletcher in a ceremony at her family home in Indianapolis on June 18; they embark on a honeymoon that includes stops in New York City, Quebec, and Mackinac Island, Michigan. Reluctantly campaigns for House of Representatives seat, which he wins in November. Visits New York City and attends a birthday dinner in honor of Mark Twain.

  1903

  Enters Indiana House of Representatives and has eye-opening introduction to the rough-and-tumble of politics. Struggling with public speaking, delivers only one speech as a representative, which lasts six minutes. Opposes bill supported by Indiana’s governor that would allow the governor, in an act of political retaliation, to replace the board of the state reformatory; when a compromise bill passes that denies the governor such powers, Tarkington is praised by the Indianapolis News for grasping “the question in its true light” and having “the courage and independence to stand up for what he believed to be right.” After legislature adjourns in March, vacations with Louisa at French Lick in southern Indiana and, drawing from his political experiences, writes the short stories “Boss Gorgett” and “The Aliens,” the first of the six political stories that will be collected in In the Arena. Contracts typhoid fever and, severely ill for several weeks, loses eighty pounds; on doctor’s orders he leaves Indiana to convalesce in Kennebunkport, Maine, for the summer. Is so taken with the place that eventually and for all of his later life he will be a part-time resident, dividing his time between there and Indianapolis. Continues recuperation during an eleven-month European trip, arriving in England with his wife and parents at the beginning of the fall. After a brief stay in London, arrives in Paris and is immediately smitten with the city. Travels through Italy and spends a month on Capri before settling in Rome for the winter. Cherry is published by Harper and Bros. in October.

  1904

  Visits Germany and Belgium, where he rides for the first time in an automobile, as well as the Netherlands, before returning to Paris. Arrives back in the United States in August, living with Louisa in a Manhattan apartment. Writes stories, essays, and a dramatic adaptation of The Gentleman from Indiana for the producer George Tyler. In December, receives invitation to the White House from Theodore Roosevelt, who, Tarkington learns during their luncheon, has read and admired his political stories in magazines.

  1905

  In the Arena is published by McClure Phillips & Co. on January 30. Stage version of The Gentleman from Indiana opens in Indianapolis in February but, unsuccessful in tryout runs in Chicago and Boston, is not staged in New York. Publishes widely in magazines. Attends annual dinner of the Periodical Publishers Association in Lakewood, New Jersey, where he and the playwright Harry Leon Wilson lay the groundwork for their lengthy collaboration on works for the stage. Writes novel The Conquest of Canaan, set in contemporary Indiana, which begins serialization before he is finished; book version, with brisk sales, is published by Harper in the fall. After a short visit to Indianapolis, travels to Capri with Louisa, Wilson and his wife Rose O’Neill (the creator of the Kewpie doll), as well as his future collaborator Julian Street and his wife; rents the villa of the American artist Elihu Vedder. Finds himself unable to write while on Capri. With Louisa now pregnant, the Tarkingtons settle by year’s end in Rome in advance of the delivery, living in a penthouse apartment at the Palace Hotel.

  1906

  Daughter Laurel born on February 11. Rejects proposal from D. Appleton and Company to buy the rights to his work for $20,000. Relocates family to Paris in April and takes automobile tour of surrounding countryside to the southeast; leaves Paris residence in May to settle nearby at a villa in Champigny-sur-Marne, with a hilltop view of the city. Travels to London and Normandy and along the Loire. Resumes working after long fallow period, writing for Harper’s the novella His Own People, about a young American in Rome. Displeased himself with its aesthetic merits, is informed that Harper’s w
ill not publish it because of moral objections to a drunken kiss described in the narrative. Contracts with The Saturday Evening Post to publish it instead, the first of many fictional works accepted by the editor, George Lorimer, and his successors; book version is accepted by F. N. Doubleday, now the founder and head of his own company. With Harry Leon Wilson, writes play The Man from Home. At the end of December, leaves Champigny-sur-Marne villa for a Left Bank apartment at 20, rue de Tournon, in Paris, for which he has signed a three-year lease.

  1907

  In spring, starts novel The Guest of Quesnay, which he completes in four months. Travels in summer with Wilson to New York, where they meet George Tyler, whose production of The Man from Home is scheduled for tryouts in Louisville and Chicago in the fall. At the home of a friend from his Princeton days, meets Susanah Robinson (née Kiefer, b. 1870; she has divorced her first husband). Serialization of The Guest of Quesnay in Everybody’s Magazine begins in November.

  1908

  The Man from Home premieres on Broadway and is an enormous success. Abandons fiction for playwriting for the time being, and during the next two years, though he continues to be based in Paris, makes regular trips to New York and Indiana. Writes two plays with Wilson: Cameo Kirby and Foreign Exchange.

  1909

  After a visit to Indianapolis, learns that his mother has died of a heart attack on April 17; returns to Indiana for the funeral. Writes four plays with Wilson, including Your Humble Servant and Getting a Polish. Expands the previously published story “Beasley and the Hunchback” (1905) into the book-length Beasley’s Christmas Party, published by Harper in October. Tiring of traveling between Paris and New York because of his plays, has furniture and other personal effects shipped home and decides not to renew his Paris lease.

  1910

  Father remarries. Getting a Polish, revised as a farce, is staged in Kennebunkport and then in New York. Drinks heavily, and domestic tensions between the Tarkingtons strain their marriage to the breaking point.

  1911

  Writes little. Separates from Louisa in July. Goes to Europe with his sister’s husband and his nephew John, a Princeton undergraduate, visiting Paris, Switzerland, northern Italy, and Germany. During the trip, writes frequent, mostly unanswered letters to Louisa. Arrives in New York in August, and discovers that Louisa has filed for divorce, seeking custody of Laurel and claiming mental cruelty, which is reported in the Indianapolis newspapers. Divorce is granted in November, with Louisa retracting her charges of cruelty; she is given custody of Laurel for eleven months of the year, with Tarkington allowed visitation rights and one month of custody during the summer. Sees the English novelist Arnold Bennett, whom he had met in London, in New York and Indianapolis. Returning to the writing of fiction, begins story “Mary Smith.”

  1912

  Suffers heart attack that requires lengthy convalescence. On January 16, vows successfully to give up drinking. Begins working on novel The Flirt, finishing in the summer; it is accepted by The Saturday Evening Post for a two-month serialization beginning in December. Courts Susanah Robinson, visiting her several times in Dayton, Ohio, where they are married on November 6.

  1913

  Book version of The Flirt published by Doubleday, Page & Co. on March 8. Susanah, after reading the English author Horace Vachell’s novel The Hill, gives it to Tarkington and, when he claims that its depiction of boys is unrealistic, she asks him to write something more lifelike. He responds with the story “Penrod and the Pageant” (later retitled “A Boy and His Dog”), the début of Penrod Schofield, boy protagonist of a series of many stories that begin appearing in magazines in June. Dressed in a bathrobe and writing in longhand (he never learns to use a typewriter), works according to an intensive schedule that occupies nearly all his waking hours.

  1914

  From January through March writes The Turmoil, novel set in Indiana that is critical of American business values. Penrod, comprising thirty-one stories, is published on March 26 by Doubleday, Page. Serialization of The Turmoil in Harper’s begins in August. Novella about the theater, Harlequin and Columbine, serialized in Metropolitan Magazine, September–November. Works on the comic novel Seventeen.

  1915

  Seventeen begins serialization in Metropolitan. The Turmoil, published in February by Harper, garners critical praise, including from William Dean Howells, and sells well. Writes Woodrow Wilson and advocates for a massive preparedness campaign for the American military in support of the Allies in World War I; in the months leading up to America’s entry into the war he will regularly publish essays in support of Allies and against claims made by pro-German Americans. After a hiatus from playwriting of several years, drafts comedy about an Italian immigrant organ-grinder, Mister Antonio. While summering in Maine, accepts lunch invitation from Howells, beginning a friendship that lasts until Howells’s death five years later. With Julian Street, works on comic play The Ohio Lady, early version of The Country Cousin.

  1916

  In remarks published in the Cleveland Leader, makes distinction between his approaches to plays and fiction: “When I am writing a play, I think of what the public wants. When I see that the public doesn’t want anything in one of my plays, I try to cut it out and write something that it does want. But I do not make these concessions when I am writing fiction.” Seventeen is published in book form by Harper in March. First of several film adaptations of The Flirt are released, as is film of Seventeen. Buys eighteen acres of land in Maine on a hill near Kennebunkport. Mister Antonio, starring Otis Skinner, premieres on Broadway in September. Second Penrod book, Penrod and Sam, is published in October by Doubleday, Page.

  1917

  Begins writing novel The Magnificent Ambersons, a return to the social and regional themes he had treated in The Turmoil. Increasingly concerned with the war in Europe, publishes acerbic satire “Laughing in German,” directed largely at the government’s toleration of German harassment of American ships; whips up support for a demonstration protesting the German use of Belgian forced labor and serves as Indianapolis chairman of the American Rights Committee. After the U.S. enters the war, writes pro-war pamphlets and the story “Captain Schlotterwerz,” which results in a rejection from Collier’s, his first in over a decade, because it is too propagandistic (The Saturday Evening Post accepts it). Encourages toleration of Americans of German extraction. Builds colonial frame house, called Seawood, on Kennebunkport land and will live there for much of the year for the rest of his life. Adaptation of Seventeen, starring Ruth Gordon, is staged in Indianapolis; production will run for eight months on Broadway the following year. Revises The Ohio Lady for Broadway staging as The Country Cousin, produced by George Tyler, which is attended on opening night by Theodore Roosevelt.

  1918

  Writes Ramsay Milholland, novel that culminates in its young protagonist enlisting in the army, for serialization beginning in November and book publication the following year. Continues pamphleteering for the war effort, claiming to have “long since dropped all work of my own.” In June, in pamphlet of the League to Enforce Peace, disputes points raised against the League of Nations by Indiana’s former U.S. senator Alfred Beveridge. Begins publishing in Collier’s the stories that will be collected in Gentle Julia. Edward E. Rose’s stage adaptation of Penrod is staged on Broadway. The Magnificent Ambersons is published in October by Doubleday, Page, which also issues an edition of his collected works under his supervision and the biographical-critical study Booth Tarkington by Robert Cortes Holliday. Writes the comic play Clarence for actor Alfred Lunt, who has taken over the starring role for the touring production of The Country Cousin; also intends to feature the young actor Helen Hayes, who has been cast in the Broadway adaptation of Penrod.

  1919

  For The Magnificent Ambersons, is awarded the first of his two Pulitzer Prizes. Begins lifelong friendship with Kenneth Roberts, a journalist and later a nov
elist who is his neighbor in Maine. With Wilson, writes plays Up from Nowhere, which flops on Broadway and closes in two weeks, and The Gibson Upright, a farce attacking communism that is performed only in Indianapolis. But Clarence, starring Lunt and Hayes, opens in September to popular and critical success and a long theatrical run. Writes silent film scenarios for movies about boy protagonist Edgar Pomeroy.

  1920

  In summer, writes novel Alice Adams. Poldekin, anti-communist play, opens on Broadway in September and, harshly reviewed, closes the following month.

  1921

  Alice Adams, published by Doubleday, Page in May after being serialized in Pictorial Review, is hailed by critics and sells well. Tarkington tops list of booksellers’ poll in Publishers Weekly ranking most significant living American authors. Writes play The Wren, set in Maine, as a vehicle for Helen Hayes; reviewed unfavorably, it closes after a three-week Broadway run in October. Completes comedy The Intimate Strangers and is asked by its producers, including Florenz Ziegfeld, to direct it; Ziegfeld’s wife Billie Burke plays a starring role. Visits the Harding White House with a group of journalists early in November and while in Washington is recognized at a tryout matinee of The Intimate Strangers by Woodrow Wilson, infirm and, as Tarkington writes to his father, “unutterably shattered.”

  1922

  Awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Alice Adams, and is lauded in polls conducted by Literary Digest and The New York Times as the greatest living American author and as one of ten great Americans, respectively. Book version of Gentle Julia, whose stories were published in magazines in 1918–1919, is brought out by Doubleday, Page in April. After a successful three months on Broadway and a tour, The Intimate Strangers closes. Asked by Ziegfeld and Billie Burke to write a new comedy, answers with Rose Briar, written in Maine in the summer and opening on Broadway Christmas night to positive reviews. The secretary of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, advocating a censorship process for book manuscripts, cites him as one writer whose material is never salacious. Interviewed by The New York Times about censorship and his views on sexually candid literature, he claims at the outset, “the fact is I don’t write about such things, simply because I don’t think about such things,” then voices respect for Zola but criticizes the French writer’s imitators as well as those of Wells and Shaw, laments the “breaking down in taste” among the reading public, and, while mostly opposing censorship, says that a man like Will H. Hays (later head of the so-called Hays Office to monitor the content of motion pictures) could be trusted with such power. Undergoes treatment for cataracts. Begins working on novel The Midlander. Visited after Christmas by distraught daughter Laurel, who has quarreled with her mother (now remarried and living in Boston) over her recently born stepsister and has been sent away.