.Mjkz.MjQwNw
PORTLAND SUNDAY TELEGRAM AND PRESS HERALD Jan. 12, 1930 Writes Novel Of Early Maine [image - Kenneth Roberts sitting in a wicker chair in front of his home in Kennebunkport Maine]
Kenneth Roberts Mr. Roberts has written a thrilling story of Colonial Maine, the Revolution and the heroic march of Arnold's small army through the wilderness of this State. When this photograph was taken he was seated at his Summer home at Kennebunkport. He is now in Italy.
Maine And The Greatest Tale Of The Revolution
Kenneth Roberts Writes Stirring Account Of Arnold's Expedition And The Rebellion In This State
ARUNDEL By Kenneth Robert: Doubleday, Doran and Com- pany, Garden City, New York. $2.50
Novels less distinguished than this have brought thier authors fame. Kenneth Roberts, who summers at Kennebunkport, turned from magazine writing to produce this amazing novel, a work that lay in his mind for a long time and, while there, received enthu-siastic endorsement from the late Theo-dore Roosevelt and Booth Tarkington. "Arundel" is a novel of Maine and the Revolutionary War. It is a pow-erful story, exciting, glamorous and romantic, Colonial frontier life at Arun-del, now Kennebunkport; the outbreak of the Revolution; Arnold's heroic march through Maine's wilderness, and the courageoud but disastrous attack on Quebec are the maine pegs supporting the lengthy story. Roberts And Maine [bold] Roberts ls well qualified to write such a tale as this. A lover of Maine and her out-doors, his fishing exceursions, hunt-ing trips and pleasure jaunts through the State have familiarized him with the country through which Arnold's brave army passed. He is a lover of na-ture and this book is evidence of the extent of his knowledge of nature lore. In addition, he has read widely, sat-urating himself with historical facts. In this research he was aided by General Dawes and other friends. The result is that his book ls vividly colored with the atmosphere of the Revolutionary period. But for the whiteness of its pages, the newness of its binding and the spelling of some of its words, one could readily believe that it was some old story, written by Steve Nason him-self and handed down through his fam-ily. "Arundel" Is one of the best Ameri-can novels of recent years. That state-ment needs no qualiftcation. It is brilliant. It is American throughout. It is authentic, recording events that heretofore have been curiously neglect-ed. Launched into a world of light, bob-bing books, over-laden with modern froth, unable to withstand the storms of time, this book la impressive, prom-ising to staunchly endure, as have "The Three Musketeers", "Lorna Doone"' and ' other famous tales with which Booth Tarkington has properly ranked it. The Story[bold] The story is told by Steve Nason of Arundel, whose father, Steve Nason, Sr., was the proprietor of an inn and a friend to the Abenaki Indians of Maine. The story itself is simple. When young Steve is a boy, a Frenchman, Guerlac, visits his father's inn, angers those gathered there, and leading some unfriendly Indians, kills one of the set-tlers and escapes to Quebec with his young daughteer, Steve's sweetheart. Steve and his father follow the mur-derers into the wilderness but fail in an attempt to rescue the girl. The boy sears that he will hunt out Guerlac and lives for the time when he can go to Quebec. When the Colonies rebel against England and Arnold and Washington plan the expedition to Que-bec, he, with other Maine men, volun-teer their services as guides. At last, after enduring the hardships of the journey through the forest, Steve man-ages to enter Quebec and there finds the sweetheart of his youth. But she is no longer the girl he knew back at Arundel and he is made to realize that he has not loved her, but only his dream of her. The story, however, is only the smll-est part of the novel. Looming above it are many vivid pictures, whirling ac-tion, humor. These are like majestic mountains and the story like some car-avan passing at their feet. Looking, one is aware of the caravan and deeply in-terested in its progress, but one can never forget those mountains in the background. Early Maine [bold] In the first part of the novel, Roberts draws a clear picture of life as it was