Booth Tarkington , whose literary career spanned nearly five decades at the beginning of the twentieth century, was a popular and successful writer of fiction, long and short, and a playwright of some importance. Although he had more talent than most of his contemporaries, his work never quite achieved major significance, and he had to be content with a large rather than a discriminating audience. Despite his popular appeal, however, his work had importance for students of American literature, for he was a shrewd observer of people and manners, of social mobility, and of cultural conflict. He was an excellent craftsman, a witty and charming writer whose works are enjoyable if seldom profound.

Once his literary apprenticeship ended and he published his first novel, The Gentleman from Indiana (1899), he became the darling of the large-circulation magazines. He wrote with such facility that, from then until his death, he turned...