In the Arena

Newton Booth Tarkington was an American author and playwright who lived from July 29, 1869, to May 19, 1946. His books The Magnificent Ambersons (1918) and Alice Adams (1921) are his most famous works. He has won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once. The other three are William Faulkner, John Updike, and Colson Whitehead. In the 1910s and 1920s, he was thought to be the best live American author. A number of his stories have been turned into movies. Tarkington, Meredith Nicholson, George Ade, and James Whitcomb Riley were some of the writers who helped Indiana have a Golden Age of writing in the first quarter of the 20th century. Booth Tarkington was in the Indiana House of Representatives for one term. He didn't like how cars came about, and many of his stories took place in the Midwest. He finally moved to Kennebunkport, Maine, and kept doing the work he had always done, even though he lost his sight. Tarkington was born on July 29, 1869, in Indianapolis, Indiana. His father was a judge, and his mother was an officer. He came from a wealthy family in the Midwest that had lost a lot of money in the Panic of 1873.