Kenneth Roberts
Encyclopedia
- Not to be confused with the Canadian author of children's novels, Ken Roberts
Kenneth Lewis Roberts (December 8, 1885 in Kennebunk, Maine
Kennebunk, Maine
Kennebunk is a town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,075 people at the 2000 census. Including Kennebunkport , the population totals 14,196 people...
– July 21, 1957 in Kennebunkport, Maine
Kennebunkport, Maine
Kennebunkport is a town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 3,720 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford metropolitan statistical area....
) was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
author of historical novels. Roberts worked first as a journalist, becoming nationally known for his work with the Saturday Evening Post from 1919 to 1928, and then as a popular novelist. Born in Kennebunk, Maine
Kennebunk, Maine
Kennebunk is a town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,075 people at the 2000 census. Including Kennebunkport , the population totals 14,196 people...
, Roberts specialized in Regionalist
Regionalism (literature)
In literature, regionalism or local color refers to fiction or poetry that focuses on specific features – including characters, dialects, customs, history, and topography – of a particular region...
historical fiction. He often wrote about his native state and its terrain, also depicting other upper New England states and scenes. For example, the heroes of Arundel and Rabble in Arms are from Kennebunk (then called Arundel
Arundel, Maine
Arundel is a town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 3,571 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford, Maine Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
), while Langdon Towne, the chief character of Roberts's Northwest Passage, is depicted as being from Kittery, Maine with friends in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Roberts graduated from Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
in 1908, where he wrote the lyrics for two Cornell fight songs, including Fight for Cornell. He was also a member of the Quill and Dagger
Quill and Dagger
Quill and Dagger is a senior honor society at Cornell University. It is often recognized as one of the most prominent collegiate societies of its type, along with Skull and Bones of Yale University...
society. He was later awarded honorary doctorates from three New England universities: Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
in New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
, Colby College
Colby College
Colby College is a private liberal arts college located on Mayflower Hill in Waterville, Maine. Founded in 1813, it is the 12th-oldest independent liberal arts college in the United States...
in Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
and Middlebury College
Middlebury College
Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college located in Middlebury, Vermont, USA. Founded in 1800, it is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges in the United States. Drawing 2,400 undergraduates from all 50 United States and over 70 countries, Middlebury offers 44 majors in the arts,...
in Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
.
Journalism
After graduation, Roberts spent eight years working as a newspaperman for the Boston PostBoston Post
The Boston Post was the most popular daily newspaper in New England for over a hundred years before it folded in 1956. The Post was founded in November 1831 by two prominent Boston businessmen, Charles G...
. In 1917, he enlisted in the American army for World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, but he ended up as a lieutenant in the intelligence section of the American Expeditionary Force Siberia
American Expeditionary Force Siberia
The American Expeditionary Force Siberia was a United States Army force that was involved in the Russian Civil War in Vladivostok, Russian Empire, during the tail end of World War I after the October Revolution, from 1918 to 1920....
in the Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
instead of at the front in Europe. The contacts that he made in that role enabled him to become a European correspondent for the Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post is a bimonthly American magazine. It was published weekly under this title from 1897 until 1969, and quarterly and then bimonthly from 1971.-History:...
after the war, where he became the first American journalist to cover the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch
Beer Hall Putsch
The Beer Hall Putsch was a failed attempt at revolution that occurred between the evening of 8 November and the early afternoon of 9 November 1923, when Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler, Generalquartiermeister Erich Ludendorff, and other heads of the Kampfbund unsuccessfully tried to seize power...
, Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
's first attempt to gain power. Roberts described working for the Posts legendary editor George Horace Lorimer
George Horace Lorimer
George Horace Lorimer was an American journalist and author. He is best known as the editor of The Saturday Evening Post....
as follows: "I told him my ideas, which he instantly rejected or accepted.... The price to be paid for a story was never discussed, and Lorimer was always generous."
Historical fiction
Roberts' KennebunkportKennebunkport, Maine
Kennebunkport is a town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 3,720 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford metropolitan statistical area....
neighbor Booth Tarkington
Booth Tarkington
Booth Tarkington was an American novelist and dramatist best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novels The Magnificent Ambersons and Alice Adams...
convinced him that he would never find the time to succeed as a novelist as long as he worked as a journalist, and Tarkington agreed to help by editing Roberts' early novels. Although Roberts continued to sell a few essays to the Post, his next few years were largely dedicated to historical fiction. Ultimately, Tarkington edited all of his historical novels through Oliver Wiswell, and Roberts said in his autobiography that he offered Tarkington co-writing credit on both Northwest Passage and Oliver Wiswell due to Tarkington's extensive revisions to each. Both of those novels as well as Rabble in Arms are dedicated to Tarkington.
Roberts' historical fiction often focused on rehabilitating unpopular persons and causes in American history. A key character in Arundel and Rabble in Arms is American officer and eventual traitor Benedict Arnold
Benedict Arnold
Benedict Arnold V was a general during the American Revolutionary War. He began the war in the Continental Army but later defected to the British Army. While a general on the American side, he obtained command of the fort at West Point, New York, and plotted to surrender it to the British forces...
, with Roberts focusing on Arnold's expedition to Quebec and the Battle of Quebec
Battle of Quebec (1775)
The Battle of Quebec was fought on December 31, 1775 between American Continental Army forces and the British defenders of the city of Quebec, early in the American Revolutionary War. The battle was the first major defeat of the war for the Americans, and it came at a high price...
in the first novel and the Battle of Valcour Island
Battle of Valcour Island
The naval Battle of Valcour Island, also known as the Battle of Valcour Bay, took place on October 11, 1776, on Lake Champlain. The main action took place in Valcour Bay, a narrow strait between the New York mainland and Valcour Island...
, the Saratoga campaign
Saratoga campaign
The Saratoga Campaign was an attempt by Great Britain to gain military control of the strategically important Hudson River valley in 1777 during the American Revolutionary War...
and the Battles of Saratoga in the second. Meanwhile, the hero of Northwest Passage
Northwest Passage (novel)
Northwest Passage is a historical novel by Kenneth Roberts, published in 1937. Told through the eyes of primary character Langdon Towne, much of this novel centers around the exploits and character of Robert Rogers, the leader of Rogers' Rangers, who were a colonial force fighting with the British...
was Major Robert Rogers
Robert Rogers (soldier)
Robert Rogers was an American colonial frontiersman. Rogers served in the British army during both the French and Indian War and the American Revolution...
and his company Rogers' Rangers
Rogers' Rangers
Rogers' Rangers was an independent company of colonial militia, attached to the British Army during the Seven Years War . The unit was informally trained by Major Robert Rogers as a rapidly deployable light infantry force tasked with reconnaissance and conducting special operations against distant...
, although Rogers fought for the British during the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
. Oliver Wiswell focuses on a Loyalist
Loyalist (American Revolution)
Loyalists were American colonists who remained loyal to the Kingdom of Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War. At the time they were often called Tories, Royalists, or King's Men. They were opposed by the Patriots, those who supported the revolution...
officer during the American Revolution and covers the entire war, from famous events such as the Siege of Boston
Siege of Boston
The Siege of Boston was the opening phase of the American Revolutionary War, in which New England militiamen—who later became part of the Continental Army—surrounded the town of Boston, Massachusetts, to prevent movement by the British Army garrisoned within...
, the Battle of Bunker Hill
Battle of Bunker Hill
The Battle of Bunker Hill took place on June 17, 1775, mostly on and around Breed's Hill, during the Siege of Boston early in the American Revolutionary War...
, the New York and New Jersey campaign
New York and New Jersey campaign
The New York and New Jersey campaign was a series of battles for control of New York City and the state of New Jersey in the American Revolutionary War between British forces under General Sir William Howe and the Continental Army under General George Washington in 1776 and the winter months of 1777...
through the Battle of Fort Washington
Battle of Fort Washington
The Battle of Fort Washington was fought in the American Revolutionary War between the United States and Great Britain on November 16, 1776. It was a decisive British victory, forcing the entire garrison of Fort Washington to surrender....
, and the Franco-American alliance
Franco-American alliance
The Franco-American alliance refers to the 1778 alliance between Louis XVI's France and the United States, during the American Revolutionary War. Formalized in the 1778 Treaty of Alliance, it was a military pact in which France provided arms and money, and engaged in full-scale war with Britain. ...
, to less-remembered events such as the Convention Army
Convention Army
The Convention Army was an army of British and allied troops captured after the Battles of Saratoga in the American Revolutionary War.-Convention of Saratoga:...
, the exodus to Kentucky County, the Siege of Ninety-Six
Siege of Ninety-Six
The Siege of Ninety Six was a siege late in the American Revolutionary War. From May 22 to June 18, 1781, Continental Army Major General Nathanael Greene led 1,000 troops in a siege against the 550 Loyalists in the fortified village of Ninety Six, South Carolina. The 28-day siege centered on an...
, and the resettlement of the United Empire Loyalists
United Empire Loyalists
The name United Empire Loyalists is an honorific given after the fact to those American Loyalists who resettled in British North America and other British Colonies as an act of fealty to King George III after the British defeat in the American Revolutionary War and prior to the Treaty of Paris...
, as well as providing a later look at both a dissolute Rogers and a frustrated Arnold among the British.
As a result of his research into the Arnold Expedition, Roberts published the nonfiction work March to Quebec: Journals of the Members of Arnold's Expedition, a compilation of various journals and letters written by participants in the march. During Roberts' research into Major Rogers, his researcher uncovered transcripts of both of Major Rogers' courts-martial (once as the accuser and once as the accused), which had been thought lost for over a century, and these were published in the second volume of a special two-volume edition of Northwest Passage. He and his wife Anna translated into English the French writer Médéric Louis Élie Moreau de Saint-Méry
Mederic Louis Elie Moreau de Saint-Mery
Médéric Louis Élie Moreau de Saint-Méry was a French historian and lawyer. He was born at Fort de France and came to Paris when he was 19. He became an attorney at the parliament of Paris.- Bibliography :...
's account of his journey through America in the 1790s. In addition, his last published work was a brief history of the Battle of Cowpens
Battle of Cowpens
The Battle of Cowpens was a decisive victory by Patriot Revolutionary forces under Brigadier General Daniel Morgan, in the Southern campaign of the American Revolutionary War...
, entitled The Battle of Cowpens
The Battle of Cowpens (small volume)
The Battle of Cowpens, published in 1958, is the last published work of the late novelist Kenneth Roberts. It is an essay discussing the Battle of Cowpens during the American Revolution, which Roberts had originally intended to turn into a novel but published as an essay to popularize his view of...
, issued after his death in 1958.
One of Lorimer's last acts as editor of the Saturday Evening Post was to serialize Northwest Passage in 1936 and 1937. The success of that serialization led the book, when published, to become the second best-selling novel in America for the year 1937 and fifth for the year 1938. Oliver Wiswell also spent two years in the top 10 (1940 and 1941), and Lydia Bailey reached the top 10 in 1947.
Key historical novels by Roberts and their topics include:
- Arundel (1929) - The American RevolutionAmerican RevolutionThe American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
through the Battle of QuebecBattle of Quebec (1775)The Battle of Quebec was fought on December 31, 1775 between American Continental Army forces and the British defenders of the city of Quebec, early in the American Revolutionary War. The battle was the first major defeat of the war for the Americans, and it came at a high price... - The Lively Lady (1931) - War of 1812War of 1812The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
- Rabble in Arms (1933) - Sequel to Arundel; the American Revolution through the Battles of Saratoga
- Captain CautionCaptain CautionCaptain Caution is a 1940 American adventure film directed by Richard Wallace. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Sound Recording .-Cast:* Victor Mature as Daniel 'Dan' Marvin* Louise Platt as Corunna Dorman...
(1934) - War of 1812 - Northwest PassageNorthwest Passage (novel)Northwest Passage is a historical novel by Kenneth Roberts, published in 1937. Told through the eyes of primary character Langdon Towne, much of this novel centers around the exploits and character of Robert Rogers, the leader of Rogers' Rangers, who were a colonial force fighting with the British...
(1937) - French and Indian WarFrench and Indian WarThe French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...
and the Carver expeditionJonathan CarverJonathan Carver was an American explorer and writer. He was born in Weymouth, Massachusetts and then moved with his family to Canterbury, Connecticut. He later married Abigail Robbins and became a shoemaker. He is believed to have had seven children.In 1755 Carver joined the colonial militia at... - Oliver Wiswell (1940) - The American Revolution from a Loyalist's perspective, from the Siege of BostonSiege of BostonThe Siege of Boston was the opening phase of the American Revolutionary War, in which New England militiamen—who later became part of the Continental Army—surrounded the town of Boston, Massachusetts, to prevent movement by the British Army garrisoned within...
to the United Empire LoyalistsUnited Empire LoyalistsThe name United Empire Loyalists is an honorific given after the fact to those American Loyalists who resettled in British North America and other British Colonies as an act of fealty to King George III after the British defeat in the American Revolutionary War and prior to the Treaty of Paris... - Lydia BaileyLydia BaileyLydia Bailey is a 1952 film directed by Jean Negulesco, based on the historical novel by Kenneth Roberts. It stars Dale Robertson and Anne Francis.-Plot:...
(1947) - The Haitian RevolutionHaitian RevolutionThe Haitian Revolution was a period of conflict in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, which culminated in the elimination of slavery there and the founding of the Haitian republic...
and the First Barbary WarFirst Barbary WarThe First Barbary War , also known as the Barbary Coast War or the Tripolitan War, was the first of two wars fought between the United States and the North African Berber Muslim states known collectively as the Barbary States... - Boon Island (1955) - 1710 shipwreck on Boon IslandBoon IslandBoon Island is a barren piece of land located in the Gulf of Maine 6 miles off the town of York on the Maine coast. The island is approximately 300 by 700 feet in size, and is the site of Boon Island Light, the tallest lighthouse in New England.It was discovered when a coastal trading...
, MaineMaineMaine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
In 1957, two months before his death, Roberts received a Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
Special Citation "for his historical novels which have long contributed to the creation of greater interest in our early American history."
Controversies
Three of Roberts' first books were written at least in part to promote the Florida land boom of the 1920sFlorida land boom of the 1920s
The Florida land boom of the 1920s was Florida's first real estate bubble, which burst in 1925, leaving behind entire new cities and the remains of failed development projects such as Aladdin City in south Miami-Dade County and Isola di Lolando in north Biscayne Bay...
. They were Sun Hunting (1922), Florida Loafing (1925), and Florida (1926). Many people lost a lot of money in the bust that followed. In Roberts' subsequent books with listings of 'other books by this author', these three were usually not mentioned.
Late in his career, Roberts became acquainted with Henry Gross, a retired Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
game warden and amateur water dowser
Dowsing
Dowsing is a type of divination employed in attempts to locate ground water, buried metals or ores, gemstones, oil, gravesites, and many other objects and materials, as well as so-called currents of earth radiation , without the use of scientific apparatus...
. He and Gross began a long association to use Gross' supposed dowsing
Dowsing
Dowsing is a type of divination employed in attempts to locate ground water, buried metals or ores, gemstones, oil, gravesites, and many other objects and materials, as well as so-called currents of earth radiation , without the use of scientific apparatus...
abilities to find deposits of water, petroleum
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
, uranium
Uranium
Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...
, and diamonds, through a corporation named Water Unlimited, Inc. Roberts documented his experiences in three nonfiction books that were popular successes but that received much criticism from the scientific community. Roberts himself joked that he should have subtitled The Seventh Sense as "Or How to Lose Friends and Alienate People."