Booth Tarkington was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1869. The
author's love for and knowledge of his native state is revealed to us
in several of his best novels. He was educated at Exeter Academy, at
Purdue University, and at Princeton.
Mr. Tarkington may truly be said to be a literary man. Unlike most of
our other authors, he has had no other formal occupation except that of
writing. To this work, since he left Princeton, he has given all of his
time and energy. For eight years he wrote stories that were always
rejected. His courage and perseverance, however, were finally richly
rewarded. With his first accepted work, _The Gentleman from Indiana_,
he attained a secure position as a writer of distinction.
Mr. Tarkington is said to be exceedingly companionable and entirely
without self-consciousness and egotism. He is a ready and entertaining
talker and tells a story as well as he writes one. He has, too, a keen
sense of the humorous. This naturalness and this sense of humor may be
noticed readily in the story, "A Reward of Merit" selected from _Penrod
and Sam_.
The books, _Penrod_, _Penrod and Sam_, and _Seventeen_ are studies of
the human boy, presented in a series of chapters that read like so many
short stories.