MOBILE DIGITAL LIBRARY - SOCIETY OF YOUNG NIGERIAN ...

BOOTH TARKINGTON (Page 19)Booth Tarkington was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1869. The author's love for andknowledge of his native state is revealed to us in several of his best novels. He waseducated at Exeter Academy, at Purdue University, and at Princeton.Mr. Tarkington may truly be said to be a literary man. Unlike most of our other authors,he has had no other formal occupation except that of writing. To this work, since he leftPrinceton, he has given all of his time and energy. For eight years he wrote stories thatwere always rejected. His courage and perseverance, however, were finally richlyrewarded. With his first accepted work, The Gentleman from Indiana, he attained asecure position as a writer of distinction.Mr. Tarkington is said to be exceedingly companionable and entirely withoutself-consciousness and egotism. He is a ready and entertaining talker and tells a story aswell as he writes one. He has, too, a keen sense of the humorous. This naturalness andthis sense of humor may be noticed readily in the story, "A Reward of Merit" selectedfrom Penrod and Sam.The books, Penrod, Penrod and Sam, and Seventeen are studies of the human boy,presented in a series of chapters that read like so many short stories.