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Penrod
by Booth Tarkington
published in 1914
Category: Fiction

Penrod Schofield is an eleven-year-old boy living in middle America. He's been roped into the school play as the young Sir Lancelot, a role that he does not want to play. Instead of slogging through it, he and his friends make mischief and thus are dubbed the 'bad boys.' They lie, cheat, and steal to get what they want.... More

Penrod
by Booth Tarkington
published in 1914
Category: Fiction

Penrod Schofield is an eleven-year-old boy living in middle America. He's been roped into the school play as the young Sir Lancelot, a role that he does not want to play. Instead of slogging through it, he and his friends make mischief and thus are dubbed the 'bad boys.' They lie, cheat, and steal to get what they want. When Penrod's sister's dress is found muddied in the doghouse, he naturally is blamed for it. Penrod comes into situations that are too complicated for his young mind to understand, and yet, he manages to somehow make sense of it all. He learns, despite himself, what it means to be human.

This is a picture of a boy's heart, full of the lovable, humorous, tragic things which are locked secrets to most older folks. It is a finished, exquisite work.

About the Author:

Booth Tarkington (1869-1946), American playwright and author, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1919 for his novel The Magnificent Ambersons (1918) and again in 1922 for Alice Adams (1921), later adapted to the screen starring Katherine Hepburn.

Exploring the realms of middle-class, middle-America, romantic illusions and the power and corruption of wealth, Tarkington became a leading voice of his times through his memorable characters and social commentary in his novels and plays. Praised by the father of American realism William Dean Howells, Tarkington's Growth Trilogy, based on America's Industrial Expansionism started with The Turmoil (1915), then The Magnificent Ambersons, followed by The Midlander (1924). Dozens of his works were adapted to the stage and screen during his lifetime and as recently as 2002.

Newton Booth Tarkington was born 29 July 1869 in Indianapolis, Indiana, the son of Elizabeth and John Stevenson Tarkington, a lawyer and judge. He first attended Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana, then Princeton in New Jersey where he was editor of the Nassau Literary Magazine. Ever the raconteur, he was immensely popular at school, and later earned an honorary Doctor of Letters in 1918. After having started writing at a very early age short stories and plays, he always knew he wanted to be a writer and upon finishing school put pen to paper in earnest.

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