Selected Works
Arundel : A Chronicle
of the Province of Maine and of the Secret Expedition led by Benedict
Arnold against Quebec (1930)
The Battle of
Cowpens: The Great Morale-Builder (1957)
Black Magic : an
account of its beneficial use in Italy, of its perversion in Bavaria, and of
certain tendencies which might necessitate its study in America (1924)
Boon Island (1955)
Captain Caution : a
chronicle of Arundel (1934)
Concentrated New
England : a sketch of Calvin Coolidge (1924)
Don't Say that About
Maine! (1948)
Europe's Morning After
(1921)
Florida (1926)
Florida Loafing: an
investigation into the peculiar state of affairs which leads residents of 47
states to encourage Spanish architecture in the 48th (1925)
Foods of old New
England. (1957) Introduction and notes
For Authors Only:
and other gloomy essays (1935)
Good Maine Food (1939)
Introduction and notes
Henry Gross and his
Dowsing Rod (1951)
I Wanted to Write
(1949)
It Must be Your Tonsils
(1936)
The Kenneth Roberts
Reader of the American Revolution (1976)
The Lively lady: a
chronicle of Arundel, of privateering, and of the circular prison on Dartmoor (1931)
Lydia Bailey (1947)
March to Quebec:
journals of the members of Arnold's expedition (1940)
Northwest Passage (1937)
Oliver Wiswell (1940)
Rabble in Arms: a
chronicle of Arundel and the Burgoyne invasion (1933)
The Seventh Sense (1953)
Sun Hunting:
adventures and observations among the native and migratory tribes of Florida (1922)
Trending into Maine
(1938)
Water Unlimited (1957)
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ROBERTS, KENNETH LEWIS
was born in Kennebunk in 1885, graduated from Cornell
University, and remained a resident of Maine for most of his life.
He was a popular novelist with best sellers such as Northwest Passage, Oliver
Wiswell, and Lydia Bailey.
Kenneth Roberts'
historical novel Arundel (1930) recounts the early life of the York
County area and
influenced the reemergence of the name Arundel for a
Maine town.
In 1928 he left his
position as a staff correspondent at the Saturday Evening Post to write
historical fiction. His early work, while extensively researched, did not
generate popular excitement. Nevertheless, Roberts'
March to Quebec; Journals of the Members of Arnold's Expedition (1940),
compiled and annotated during the writing of Arundel, is an excellent
source for the history of that event.
Roberts career turned the corner after receiving
an honorary doctorate from Dartmouth in 1934. By 1937 his
Northwest
Passage was a best seller and a year later both Middlebury and Bowdoin
colleges awarded him honorary degrees.
He became fascinated
with the traditional practice of dowsing -- allegedly being able to find water
under the ground by sensing a downward pull on wood held in ones hands.
Considered quite unscientific, he was ridiculed for his belief in the
"art."
Two months before he
died in 1957, Roberts received a Pulitzer Prize for "his historical novels which
have long contributed to the creation of greater interest in our early American
history." His papers are at the Dartmouth College Library in Hanover,
New Hampshire.
Additional resources
Bales, Jack. "At the nadir of
discouragement: The Story of Dartmouth's Kenneth Roberts Collection."
Dartmouth College Library, April, 1990; reproduced at http://www.dartmouth.edu/~library/Library_Bulletin/Apr1990/LB-A90-Bales.html
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