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LEWISTON JOURNAL JANURAY 25, 1930.

[IMAGE]

Kenneth Roberts, the author, snapped while fishing at Kennebunk Beach where he makes his home.

Kenneth Roberts, Kennebunk, Writes Maine Historical Novel [Bold] "Arundel," Tale Of Revolutionary Days, Laid in Lo-cality of Mr. Roberts' Summer Home, One of the Best American Novels of Recent Years [bold]

ONE OF THE outstanding nov-els of the new year is the work of an author who has his permanent summer home in Maine--Kenneth L. Roberts of Kennebunk Beach. "Arundel," a glamourous histori-cal novel, based on the American march on Quebec, led by Benedict Arnold, and dwelling particularly on that portion which led the dauntless leader thru Maine, published by Doubleday-Doran Co., Garden City, New York, Jan 24, has been pro-nounced by critics and writers who have already seen it, one of the best American novels of recent years. Booth Tarkington, the well-known author and summer neighbor of Mr. Roberts, has compared it to "The Three Musketeers" and "The White Company." It is said that the work was in preparation (it has been in Mr. Roberts' mind for years) it re-ceived the enthusiastic endorsement of the late Theodore Roosevelt. This book is likely to bring fame to an author who has hitherto been known chiefly as a briliant magazine writer. It is of great interest to Maine people, both because its au-thor is a dweller in Maine and be-cause the scene is laid to a large extent in this State and deals with Maine people. At the time the book comes from the press Mr. Roberts is in Italy. the march of Arnold to Quebec has always proved intriguing to the romanticist and to those for whom the heroic, the gallant and the dar-ing hold a fascination. Mr. Roberts has missed nothing of this fascination. The book is glamourous, romantic and thrilling. It also has a strong flavor of Colo-nial Maine for it is concerned with frontier life at Arundel, now Ken-nebunkport.

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In the Portland Sunday Telegram Robert B. Beith writes of the book: "Roberts is well qualified to write such a tale as this. A lover of Maine and her out-doors, his fishing excursions, hunting trips and pleasure jaunts thru the State have familiarized him with the country thru which Arnold's brave army passed. He is a lover of na-ture and his book is evidence of the extent of his knowledge of na-ture lore. "In addition, he has read widely, saturating himself with historical facts. In this research he was aided by General Dawes and other friends. The result is that his book is vivid-ly colored with the atmosphere of the Revolutionary period. But for the whiteness of its pages, the new-ness of its binding and the spelling of some of its words, one could readily believe that it was some old srory, written by Steven Nason him-self and handed down thru is fam-ily. "'Arundel' is one of the best American novels of recent years. That statement needs no qualifica-tion. It is brilliant. It is American thruout. It is authentic, recording events that heretofore have been curiously neglected. "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 gath-