My Amiable Uncle

Susanah Mayberry

Description

Twice he won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction: in 1919 for The Magnificent Ambersons and in 1922 for Alice Adams. His play Clarence launched Alfred Lunt on his distinguished career and provided Helen Hayes with an early successful role. His Penrod books continued the American boy-story tradition which started with the works of Mark Twain. Early in this century, through his novel The Turmoil, he warned of sacrificing the environment to industrial growth. Yet, since his death in 1946, Booth Tarkington -- this writer from the Midwest who accomplished so much -- has faded from the memory of the reading public, and many of his works are out of print.
But his memory is fresh and vivid in the mind of his grandniece Susanah Mayberry, and her recollections of him leap from the pages of her book. She recalls that as a small child, before she was aware of her uncle’s fame as a writer, he emerged as the one figure whose outline was clear among the blur of forms that made up her large family.

“No one who met Booth Tarkington ever forgot him,” says his great-niece. So, she introduces the reader to this multifaceted individual: the young man-about-town, the prankster, the writer of humorous letters (who drew caricatures in the margins), the bereaved father, the inspiration of the affection of three women (simultaneously), and the lover and collector of art objects and portraits.
The author of this volume draws primarily upon her own personal experiences, family lore, and letters (some never published before) to portray her amiable uncle. She tells of the pleasure it gave him to entertain his young nephews and nieces at his Tudor-style winter home in Indianapolis – where they played a spirited form of charades. She recalls vacations which she, as a college student, spent at his light-filled summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine – where she met his famous neighbors. During all of those times, Uncle Booth was a keen observer of yout who created Penrod and friends from his observations, and the teacher of youth, who transmitted his own love of art to his young relations. While recapturing memories of the unforgettable Tarkington, Mayberry recreates an era of elegant and leisurely living, when on the dining table “in the fingerbowls . . . were nosegays of sweet peas and lemon verbena or geranium leaves.”

Susanah Mayberry shares with the reader a treasure of family photographs
including Tarkington at various ages; interiors and exteriors of his homes; her
father and uncles as children (the models of Penrod); the writer’s
indomitable sister who championed his early work; and his devoted second wife,
a “gentle dragon,” who kept his day-to-day life running smoothly. Indiana residents will feel “at home” with the frequent references to the
state and its people. Indianapolis of the late nineteenth through the
mid-twentieth centuries influenced Tarkington and his work. The city was his
birthplace and his death place. He spent a year at Purdue University where he
met such “brilliancies” as George Ade and John McCutcheon. Other famous and
not-so-famous Hoosiers became a part of Tarkington’s life, and they—along with
international literary, theatrical, and political luminaries—reappear in
Susanah Mayberry’s recollections of her amiable uncle.

PREFACE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION BY JAMES WOODRESS

RECOLLECTIONS

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

Sujets

• Midwest
• Histoire
• State
• United States
• History
• Local

Informations

• Publié par: Purdue University Press
• Date de parution: 15 août 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781557539526
• Langue: English

Extrait

M Y A MIABLE U NCLE
B OOTH T ARKINGTON 1869-1946
MY AMIABLE UNCLE
Recollections about Booth Tarkington
by Susanah Mayberry
with an Introduction by James Woodress
P URDUE U NIVERSITY P RESS West Lafayette, Indiana
Copyright © 1983 by Purdue Research Foundation, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907. First printing in paperback, 2019. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.
Unless permission is granted, this material shall not be copied, reproduced, or coded for reproduction by any electrical, mechanical, or chemical processes, or combination thereof, now known or later developed.
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-55753-965-6 Epub ISBN: 978-1-55753-952-6 Epdf ISBN: 978-1-55753-951-9
This book was brought back into circulation thanks to the generous support of Purdue University’s Sesquicentennial Committee.

Photograph of Erwin Panofsky courtesy of Gerda Panofsky. Other photographs courtesy of the author and her family.
Since Booth Tarkington’s portrait collection was sold to individuals unknown to us, we were unable to obtain permission to use a photographic reproduction of Dobson’s John Milton and Lely’s Nell Gwyn. We hope the current owners of the portraits agree that we have made good use of the works.
Book design by James McCammack
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 82-81021 International Standard Book Number 0-911198-66-0
For Frank
CONTENTS
P REFACE
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
I NTRODUCTION BY J AMES W OODRESS
R ECOLLECTIONS
N OTES
B IBLIOGRAPHY
I NDEX
PREFACE
W HY WOULD ANYONE WANT TO WRITE ABOUT B OOTH Tarkington? Further, why would anyone want to read a book about him?
For several years I have been trying to answer the first question. I gave the obvious reasons, and I really believed them. I said I wanted to share my knowledge of Uncle Booth with family members who did not know him, as well as with future generations, and thus achieve family continuity. That sounded nice when said aloud, and it was really true. But to myself I thought “approval,” “pride in having a book published,” and, yes, “pride in being able to write a book .” However, I continued to feel that I was secretly pursuing my own ends, even though I had no idea what they were. Some element of my real motive still eluded me. I knew, though, that there was more than either family continuity or personal pride involved, but what was it?
It was my husband who finally answered that question for me. I wrote this book, he said, because I wanted to relive my happy times with Uncle Booth. I am his great-niece and knew him for twenty-five years. I cannot think of a greater privilege. The miracle is that during that time I was conscious of how very happy I was. My life now gallops by faster and faster and I forget many things, but happiness such as I experienced with Uncle Booth has its own adhesive quality. To put it simply, happiness sticks. Those very nearly perfect days with Uncle Booth are still vivid memories. Although I realize I can never really relive them, there is a way to recapture their essence. I can – and did – write them down.
As for my second question: why would anyone want to read about Booth Tarkington? You will know why as you read these recollections. He was a greater man than writer. No one who knew Booth Tarkington ever forgot him. I will spare you a list of superlatives. His qualities will become evident to you as you read, just as they were evident to his loving family and devoted friends. For twenty-five years Fortune smiled upon me. She does so again as I recreate and share long-gone happiness with you.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I OWE A GREAT DEBT TO THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE AIDED ME in the completion of this book. My gratitude goes to Laura Bamberger whose unflagging love during her life meant more to me than I can say. I thank Joe Galimi for his unstinting support to me and encouragement for the book. I am indebted to James Woodress for his gracious permission to use his biography Booth Tarkington: Gentleman from Indiana as a major source and to Gerda Panofsky for her kind permission to use excerpts from letters written to my uncle by her husband, Erwin Panofsky. Margaret Dean; the late Margaret Jameson; Richard Ludwig; Hans A. A. Panofsky; Elinor Schmidt; and Percy Simmons; as well as the Indianapolis Star and the Indianapolis News – all contributed critiques, background information, or specialized knowledge for this work; and I thank them.
I have made two valued friends during the publication of the book. Verna Emery of the Purdue University Press has given her enthusiasm and her editorial skills. She introduced me to Paul Fatout, a professor emeritus of English from Purdue and distinguished Twain scholar. He had an unerring eye for detail, and his appraisal and criticism of this work were invaluable. In addition, he became another good friend – one who is greatly missed.
I owe my deepest thanks to my husband and best friend for his interest, patience, and succor. He knew my manuscript could become a book long before I did.
I am grateful to the following for permission to quote from copyrighted works:
Excerpt from Booth Tarkington: A Biographical and Bibliographical Sketch by Asa Don Dickinson. Copyright 1926 by Double-day and Company, Inc. Used by permission of Doubleday and Company, Inc.
To the Saturday Evening Post for quotes and condensed material from “As I Seem to Me” by Booth Tarkington. Copyright 1941 by the Curtis Publishing Company.
Excerpts from Penrod, copyright 1913, 1914 by Booth Tarkington. Reprinted by permission of Doubleday and Company, Inc.
Excerpts from Some Old Portraits by Booth Tarkington. Copyright 1939 by Booth Tarkington. Published 1939 by Doubleday and Company, Inc. Used by permission of Brandt and Brandt.
To James Woodress for quotations from Booth Tarkington: Gentleman from Indiana. Copyright with author. Published 1955. Reprinted 1968 by Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut.
To Houghton Mifflin Company for permission to quote from The Collector’s Whatnot by Booth Tarkington, Kenneth L. Roberts, and Hugh M. Kahler.
To House of Books for permission to quote from Lady Hamilton and Her Nelson by Booth Tarkington.
To the Princeton University Library for quotations from Dr. Panofsky and Mr. Tarkington: An Exchange of Letters, 1938–1946, edited by Richard M. Ludwig; On Plays, Playwrights, and Playgoers: Selections from the Letters of Booth Tarkington to George C. Tyler and John Peter Toohey, 1918-1925, edited by Alan S. Downer; and “The Tarkington Papers,” edited by Alexander Wainwright, in the Princeton University Library Chronicle.
INTRODUCTION
by James Woodress
W HEN I JOINED THE FACULTY OF B UTLER U NIVERSITY IN the fall of 1950, I was interested in seeing the city that Booth Tarkington had made famous. His novels and stories had delighted me when I was a high school student in Missouri, and I began to reread his works. I soon discovered that despite the great changes that had overtaken central Indiana following World War II Tarkington’s fiction still was a good introduction to the social and cultural milieu of Indianapolis. As my interest in Tarkington grew, I decided to direct my scholarly efforts into a study of his life and work, and I was able to find a cousin who could introduce me to Susanah Tarkington, the author’s widow. As it happened, she lived only a few blocks from where I had bought a house in Indianapolis. I met Mrs. Tarkington and immediately was attracted to her. She was a great lady, a grande dame of the sort I think is now extinct, and knowing her was one of the great experiences of my life. The memory of her casts a nostalgic glow over my early years in Indianapolis. She opened the vast Tarkington archives at Princeton University to me, and I embarked on a biography of her husband. He had been dead only since 1946, and the contents of his study, which had been hauled off to Princeton in a moving van after his death, had not yet been used by scholars. It was an inexhaustible source of material for a biographer, and I happily plunged into writing Tarkington’s life.
Meantime, I was teaching at Butler, and one fall early in my years there, Tarkington’s niece Susanah Mayberry enrolled in one of my classes. She had been out of Smith for a number of years but was then interested in getting a master’s degree and teaching, both of which she did. This relationship also developed into a friendship that has lasted some thirty years. It is a pleasure to supply an introduction for Susanah Mayberry’s memoirs of her uncle Booth. Her memories bring her “amiable uncle” to life and complement nicely my outsider’s biography. Readers of Tarkington’s novels and stories and students of American literature and culture will be glad to have her account available, for Tarkington is a writer of significance who deserves to be read more today than he is. I hope that Susanah Mayberry’s book will send people back to the fiction of Booth Tarkington.
_____________
This introduction is a slightly revised version of an address given before the Indiana Historical Society in Indianapolis on March 30, 1979. It is reprinted here with the kind permission of the society.
Besides the pleasures of reading the work of a witty, born storyteller, the large shelf of novels and stories that Tarkington wrote between 1900 and 1946 provide important insights into the urban development and the social mobility of the American Midwest during the years it was changing from an agrarian postfrontier society to the industrial heartland of the United States. Just as the novels of Faulkner’s Mississippi or Willa Cather’s Nebraska encapsulate in their art the social, political, and cultural history of their regions, so does Tarkington’s work serve as a paradigm of growth in the Midwest. What happens in Tarkington’s fiction is representative of what was happening in Saint Louis, Columbus, Cincinnati, or Kansas City.
Tarkington’s work belongs in the mainstream of the realistic novel that develop