
Booth Tarkington
Writing
Biography
Newton Booth Tarkington (1869–1946) was an American novelist and dramatist best known for his novels The Magnificent Ambersons (1918) and Alice Adams (1921). He is one of only four novelists to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once, along with William Faulkner, John Updike, and Colson Whitehead. In the 1910s and 1920s he was considered America's greatest living author. Several of his stories were adapted to film. During the first quarter of the 20th century, Tarkington, along with Meredith Nicholson, George Ade, and James Whitcomb Riley helped to create a Golden Age of literature in Indiana.
Known For

The spoiled young heir to the decaying Amberson fortune comes between his widowed mother and the man she has always loved.
The Magnificent Ambersons

Seventeen year old William Sylvanus Baxter has fallen madly in love with young coquette, Lola Pratt. After spending all of his money on the fickle girl, she runs off with an older man. William now heartbroken, contemplates suicide, until a friend from childhood, May Parcher, pays a visit and William decides to fall in love with her.
Seventeen

A young pacifist, after refusing on principle to defend her sweetheart's honor and being banished in disgrace, joins a riverboat troupe as a singer, acquires a reputation as a crackshot after a saloon brawl in which the villain of the piece accidentally kills himself with his own gun, falls in love with his former fianceé's sister and finally bullies an apprehensive family into accepting him.
Mississippi
Madeline De Valette is betrothed to her father's cousin, Raoul De Valette, arrangements having been made when she was but a child. Valette requests his cousin's presence at his home to be presented to his fiancée. Raoul has been carrying on a love affair with L'Acadienne, a beautiful Creole who loves him devotedly. Much against his wishes, he is compelled to leave L'Acadienne. In spite of her pleadings and threats, he sets out for the Valette home.
Springtime

James Sheridan becomes wealthy and a power in a middle west city, where his entire life is absorbed in the turmoil of his own creation. The only thing he lacks is social standing, and this he strives to gain by methods he has successfully employed in driving a business deal.
The Turmoil

Cameo Kirby is a 1914 American drama silent film directed by Oscar Apfel and written by Clara Beranger and William C. deMille. The film stars Dustin Farnum, Fred Montague, James Neill, Jode Mullally, Winifred Kingston and Dick La Reno. It is based on the play Cameo Kirby by Booth Tarkington and Harry Leon Wilson. The film was released on December 24, 1914, by Paramount Pictures.
Cameo Kirby

Young rapscallion Penrod Schofield causes a good deal of trouble in his community, all in the name of protecting kids from too-strict parents and nasty neighbors. He heads the ABPA (American Boys' Protective Association) and through it disrupts a number of local social events. The townspeople are pretty fed up with Penrod and his gang, but when a couple of outlaws come to town, Penrod shows his mettle.
Penrod

Treats of the average, smalltown, middle class family life. Flirtatious Cora Madison is engaged to Richard Lindley but is attracted to Val Corliss, who has come to town to promote oil stock. When Cora's father refuses to become involved, she forges his name on some papers, thus enabling Corliss to sell many shares.
The Flirt

Clarence Smith is an ex-soldier who is hired for odd jobs by Mr. Wheeler primarily because he has overheard a family argument. And the Wheeler household is going through quite a bit of turmoil -- Mrs. Wheeler feels neglected by her husband and is jealous of Violet Pinney, the governess. Daughter Cora is planning to elope with her father's secretary, Hubert Stem. Son Bobby, meanwhile, has been making passes at the maid.
Clarence

The spoiled rotten and utterly unlikable rich kid George Amberson becomes horrified when his recently widowed mother rekindles her relationship with the wealthy Eugene Morgan, who she left decades earlier in order to marry George's father. As George struggles to sabotage his mother's new romance, he must deal with his own romantic feelings for Morgan's daughter and the consequences of his meddling as his once great family falls into ruin due to his machinations...
The Magnificent Ambersons

In the lower-middle-class Adams family, father and son are happy to work in a drugstore, but mother and daughter Alice try every possible social-climbing stratagem despite snubs and embarrassment. When Alice finally meets her dream man Arthur, mother nags father into a risky business venture and plans to impress Alice's beau with an "upscale" family dinner. Will the excruciating results drive Arthur away?
Alice Adams

The Winfield family moves into a new house in a small town in Indiana. Tomboy Marjorie Winfield begins a romance with William Sherman who lives across the street. Marjorie has to learn how to dance and act like a proper young lady. Unfortunately William Sherman has unconventional ideas for the time. His ideas include not believing in marriage or money, which causes friction with Marjorie's father, who is the local bank vice president
On Moonlight Bay

Gentle Julia is a 1923 American silent romantic drama film based on the popular novel Gentle Julia by Booth Tarkington. Directed by Rowland V. Lee, the film starred Bessie Love.
Gentle Julia

Southerner Tom Rumford was sent up north to be raised by relatives who happen to be Quakers. As a result, he returns home a passive, peace-loving young man, completely out of place in an area where men kill over issues of honor.
The Fighting Coward
A convivial evening at Hoag's Tavern is interrupted by a young companion, William Fentise, declaring to the assembled company that he is very much in love with Sylvia, known as "Cherry," the beautiful daughter of Mr. Gray, a wealthy resident of their town. He conspires with some of the bolder spirits of the company to hold up the stage in which Mr. Gray and his daughter are homeward bound to the King George Inn, he will then dash up, drive the "robbers" away single handed and claim the fair lady.
Cherry

A countess fleeing her husband mistakes a count for her hairdresser at a Monte Carlo casino.
Monte Carlo

In the early part of the Nineteenth Century, Beau Brummell was the most talked-of person in all the world, the extreme of fashion, the personification of elegance and the most pretentious individual imaginable.
Beau Brummel

A bumbling barber in the court of King Louis XV becomes engaged in political intrigue when he masquerades as a dashing nobleman engaged to the princess of Spain.
Monsieur Beaucaire

Wrongfully blamed for the death of Col. John Randall, Cameo Kirby (Gilbert) must find the true villain and clear his name before he can declare his love for Adele (Olmstead), the dead man's daughter.
Cameo Kirby

Mississippi, 1830's. Tom Rumsford comes back to Magnolia Landing, his parents'estate. Having been brought up in the North by Quaker relatives, he just hates violence and accordingly refuses a duel. As this is the only way in the South to settle a dispute between gentlemen, Tom's father is so infuriated by his behavior that Tom has no other choice but leave. Away from Magnolia Landing, Tom learns bravery and returns seven years later as "the notorious Colonel Blake", the terror of the Lower Mississippi.