(Newton) Booth Tarkington

Writer and playwright, born in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. He studied at Purdue (1890–1) and Princeton (1891–3). He hoped to become a painter but, lacking skill, he turned to writing popular novels and plays. His novels include The Magnificent Ambersons (1918) and Alice Adams (1921), and he also wrote novels for children, such as Penrod (1914) and Seventeen (1916). His best-known play is Monsieur Beaucaire (1901), an adaptation of his own novel. Popular during the early part of the 20th-c, his work now seems dated and insubstantial. He lived in Kennebunkport, ME.

Newton Booth Tarkington (July 29, 1869 – May 19, 1946) was an American novelist and dramatist best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novels The Magnificent Ambersons and Alice Adams.

Booth Tarkington was born in Indianapolis, the son of John S. Tarkington and Elizabeth Booth Tarkington.

He was one of the most popular American novelists of his time, with The Two Vanrevels and Mary's Neck appearing on the annual best-seller lists nine times.

Tarkington's best known work today is The Magnificent Ambersons, due in part to its famous treatment by Orson Welles in 1941 and its frequently favored listing on the Modern Library's list of top-100 novels. It was the second volume in Tarkington's Growth trilogy, which traced the growth of the United States through the decline of the once-powerful and aristocratic Amberson family dynasty, contrasted against the rise of industrial tycoons and "new money" families in the economic boom years after the Civil War leading up to World War I.

Tarkington donated substantially to Purdue University and has been recognized for his philanthropy. later adapted as a play, an operetta and two films -- 1924 and 1946) The Two Vanrevels (1902) Beasley's Christmas Party (1909) Penrod (1914) The Turmoil (1915) (first volume of the trilogy Growth) Penrod and Sam (1916) Seventeen (1917) The Magnificent Ambersons (1918; third volume of the trilogy Growth) The Plutocrat (1927) Claire Ambler (1928) Penrod Jashber (1929) Mirthful Haven (1930) Mary's Neck (1932) Presenting Lily Mars (1933) (filmed 1943) Kate Fennigate (1943)