The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-01-19
'Penrod' Grown Up Now and So Are
Other City Characters Written Into
Fame by Kindly Booth Harrington
BY BASIL GALLAGHER
Times staff Writer

Adolescence winch enQeareQ
him to millions Of readers, dressed
in brown tweeds and standing six
feet in his custom-made boots,
contemplated his creator rem
iniscently.
He stood in the stately living
room of Booth Tarkington'S home
at 4270 North Meridian street
while the man who wrote so glow
ingly of "Penrods" juvenile ad-
ventures sat in a wing chair and
warmed his hands at the open
fire.
And Mr.. Harrington, also wax
ing reminiscent, talked of cab
bages and kings" and an Indian
apolis which bred not only Pen
rod" but scores of other char
acters in his books and plays.
"'Penrod' really is a composite
picture of Booth and his brothers,
John and Donald Jameson" said
Mr.. Harrington. Booth, I think
inspired the dominant note in
'Penrod's' complex personality.
Il was very lucky at the time 1
wrote 'Penrod'. Then my three
nephews all were growing up and
playing in the barn back Of the
old house at Pennsylvania and
Eleventh streets. A numbr of boys
in that neighborhood who played
in our back yard, unconSciouSly
were writing themselves into that
book"
NEALOTT WHITE, for ex-
4VA ample" Mr.. j m n
chuckled. IT remember when you
gave Malott and me each Is cents
a week to stop yodeling near your
window. The bride made it a lit
tie hard for us to communicate
with each other, but 1t was fine
to have the extra spending
money"
"And the girls in the book, Mr..
Tarkington?" interrupted the re-
porter.
They were also local for the
most part" said the author. mo
individual girl, you understand,
but number of girls in the
neighborhood. Little girls of In
dianapolis, as boys saw them, you
understand"
A smile wreathed the authors
kindly face.
Little girls from my own boy
hood in Indianapolis also went
into the book" he laughed. "a
few years ago I went to dance
at one. of the country clubs here.
I met a charming woman and
asked her to dance.
Not if you behave the way you
did the last time you asked me"
she said.
1.-THE last timer" I asked, in
credulouSly.
yes" she replied, when we
both were very young I was to be
your partner in a cotillion at
dancing school, The day of the
party 1 received a note from you.
1t read:
Dear Miss R
please excuse me from dancing
the cotillion with you. I fell off
the barn roof today.
Booth Harrington"
"T WAS very afraid of little
i girls in those days." Mr.. Tark-
ington confessed. And as 1 re-
member, 1 fell off the roof pur-
posely.
Yes, l have written a number
of indianapolis families into
my books" the author continued,
but I don't dare to mention
names. And practically all Of
them are composite pictures, any,
way. An incident from one fam
lily combined with personality
description of another.
Minimizing his own famous
contributions to literature, Mr..
Harrington said that the Hoo
sier school of literateurs, in
Guiding James Whitcomb Riley,
Dresser, Wallace, Hubbard, Mich
olson, AIDE and others ranked as
regional group, second only to
Longfellow, Holmes, Emerson,
Lowell. Thoreau and others.
OF the new deal, Mr.. Tarking-
ton spoke whimsically.
"One speaks of new world con-
ditions as one does at some very
solemn event like a funeral he
said. flushed and cautious
phrases are used. One approaches
the subject almost prayerfully."
And of books:
1.-TWO of the greatest books I
ever have read almost are I'M
known now said Mr.. Harrington.
'GrandiSmes' by George w. Gable
and the 'Damnation of Thearon
Ware by Harold Frederic"
That is the curse of this age.
The good things are almost as
likely to perish as the trash"