Booth Tarkington Books in Order

John Harkless takes over a small Indiana newspaper and slowly becomes part of the town he once held at a distance. Politics, local feuds, and romance all test his sense of purpose.

A mysterious French gentleman turns the elegant world of Bath upside down with wit, disguise, and impeccable nerve. The book is a period romance built on style, secrets, and wounded pride.

This early story looks at public life through the rise and wear of a seasoned political figure. Tarkington is interested in charm, compromise, and the private cost of staying in the game.

Set in a small Midwestern city, this novel mixes family reputation, romance, and old-fashioned honor. Tarkington keeps the mood warm and witty even when loyalties start to clash.

An early romantic novel about two men competing for Sylvia and trying to prove what kind of life they can offer her. Tarkington blends courtship, pride, and social expectation in a lighter register.

These linked stories draw on local politics, showing bosses, reformers, speeches, and backroom bargains in action. Tarkington writes the gamesmanship sharply, but he also cares about conscience.

A charming young woman discovers that treating courtship like a game can damage more than one heart. Tarkington builds a quick social novel out of vanity, misunderstanding, and consequences.

This comic classic follows Penrod Schofield through school, pranks, punishments, and the glorious seriousness of being eleven. Tarkington treats boyhood as chaos, theater, and hard-earned pride.

In this popular play, a plainspoken American abroad cuts through old-world scheming with homespun nerve. Tarkington and Harry Leon Wilson build the comedy around culture clash and loyalty.

Set in a booming Indiana city, this novel follows a family caught between business ambition and the cost of industrial growth. Smoke, money, and restless change press in on every household.

Penrod Schofield and his friend Sam Williams charge from one scheme to the next with total confidence and very little foresight. The result is a lively chain of boyhood disasters and triumphs.

Willie Baxter is seventeen, self-dramatizing, and hopelessly in love with visiting beauty Lola Pratt. Tarkington captures adolescent humiliation so well that the comedy still stings.

Published during World War I, this novel weighs patriotism against privilege and asks who is really expected to sacrifice. Tarkington uses personal drama to expose the class strain inside wartime rhetoric.

A successful stage star, a nervous playwright, and a perceptive young actress collide during rehearsals in New York. The book is a smart backstage story about ego, performance, and real feeling.

The once grand Amberson family finds its place shrinking as automobiles, new money, and modern habits remake the town. At the center is George Amberson Minafer, spoiled enough to help speed the fall.

A newcomer to town becomes fascinated by David Beasley, a solitary political figure whose house hides an unusual Christmas celebration. The story blends gentle humor, loneliness, and holiday warmth.

During the French Revolution, love and danger cross paths in this historical tale of aristocrats, politics, and divided loyalties. Tarkington keeps the tone swift, dramatic, and lightly theatrical.

A successful man returns to Indiana and finds that class feeling, family expectations, and old loyalties are harder to master than public reputation. Tarkington keeps the stakes personal as well as social.

Set in Europe, this romantic novel follows a young American drawn toward an elusive woman whose beauty becomes a kind of obsession. Tarkington mixes travel, longing, and old-world atmosphere.

In the divided town of Canaan, an outsider's reputation and a woman's loyalty become the center of old grudges and civic hypocrisy. Tarkington turns local scandal into a tense story of love, class, and redemption.

This stage comedy, written with Harry Leon Wilson, uses domestic confusion and social pretension for laughs. Expect a brisk, talky piece built for entrances, reversals, and comic timing.

An American drifter lands in a French household where memory, identity, and romance begin to shift around him. Tarkington gives the story a light, continental feel with a stranger at its center.

This edition is notable for Tarkington's introduction to May Wright Sewall's spiritualist memoir. The book itself records Sewall's claimed communications with the dead and her attempt to make sense of them.

Alice Adams wants entry into a world just above her family's means, and every social call feels like a test. Tarkington makes her ambition, embarrassment, and stubborn hope painfully human.

Julia Atwater is used to admiration, and that confidence gets tested when love and ordinary decency ask more of her than charm. It's a brisk social comedy about vanity, flirtation, and small-town manners.

This collected volume gathers multiple Tarkington works in one place, making it a broad sampler of his fiction and drama. It's best for readers who want a shelf-style overview rather than a single story.

Part guidebook, part rambling handbook, this volume offers advice and amusement for collectors of antiques. Tarkington shares the pleasures, follies, and practical details of hunting old objects.

A varied story collection that moves from social comedy to stranger, more reflective tales. Tarkington uses short form well, giving even minor characters a sharp outline and a secret ache.

A brief, affectionate portrait of Princeton as Tarkington remembered it, mixing campus scenes with reflections on college spirit. It is less a formal history than a personal return to place.

Set among suburban households, this novel follows several women as marriage, reputation, and private disappointment shape their days. Tarkington watches the talk, tensions, and quiet strategies behind respectable domestic life.

A short tribute in which Tarkington introduces journalist Fred C. Kelly and comments on the wit behind the Kellygrams pieces. It is a small piece of literary friendship and recommendation.

This anthology selects shorter pieces from Tarkington for classroom or reading use. It offers a compact way to sample his humor, dialogue, and gift for character.

On an ocean voyage and European tour, a young American playwright falls into a tangle of class, money, and romantic fascination. Tarkington uses travel comedy to poke at wealth and self-deception.

Claire Ambler follows a clever, self-conscious young woman as beauty, vanity, and real feeling pull her in different directions. Tarkington turns a flapper-era social comedy into a sharper study of growing up.

Part memoir and part social reflection, this book looks back over the years 1900 to 1928 and the speed of change within them. Tarkington writes about theater, art, technology, and what modern life was sweeping away.

Penrod and Sam are back, and this time Penrod takes on the grand role of detective George B. Jashber. One long prank-filled adventure gives the book a slightly tighter plot than the earlier volumes.

Ramsey grows from combative small-town boy to young man while carrying a long, awkward devotion to Dora Yocum. Tarkington blends schoolroom comedy, first love, and the shadow of wartime change.

Newly married Della Greeley tries to find her footing in society, romance, and marriage without making a fool of herself first. Tarkington treats her ambitions with wit, sympathy, and plenty of social comedy.

A later Tarkington novel about love, reputation, and the way one impulsive attachment can reshape several lives. He balances comedy of manners with a sharper look at small-town judgment.

Set in the England of Charles II, this historical romance follows exiled courtiers, daring escapades, and a headstrong young woman tied to a lonely moor called Wanton Mally. Tarkington leans into wit, intrigue, and period color.

Small-town Indiana dreamer Lily Mars heads toward the theater world with more nerve than polish. Her climb toward the stage is funny, romantic, and full of backstage collisions.

Little Orvie wants a dog badly, and one small wish sets off a chain of comic trouble at home. It's a tender, lively look at childhood stubbornness, love, and everyday family rules.

Four unusual stories gathered with a preface by Tarkington, this volume leans more eccentric than his better-known social novels. It shows him trying stranger moods without losing his storyteller's snap.

A reflective set of essays on seventeenth-century portraiture and the lives suggested by old faces on canvas. It shows Tarkington the art lover, looking closely and imaginatively at pictures from the past.

A funny family novel about the rambunctious Little clan, whose quarrels and loyalties keep household life in constant motion. Tarkington turns ordinary domestic chaos into warmhearted comedy.

In this short public appeal, Tarkington addresses Indianapolis children directly and asks them to help with the wartime cause. It offers a glimpse of his civic voice late in life.

Kate Fennigate has spent her life trying to manage everyone around her, including herself. Tarkington turns her rivalry, sacrifice, and tangled love life into a sharp domestic drama.

A small, affectionate nonfiction volume about the pleasures, habits, and mysteries of dogs. Tarkington writes with humor and the easy fondness of someone who clearly preferred real animals to sentimentality.

This brief public letter shows Tarkington stepping out of fiction to address a national audience directly. It is best read as a wartime statement of civic concern rather than a story.

This short historical play revisits the bond between Emma Hamilton and Admiral Nelson against the pressure of war and public duty. Tarkington treats the famous romance as both intimate and patriotic.

An unfinished late novel about spoiled, showy Irving Pease and the quieter cousin who grows in his shadow. Tarkington watches family affection, ego, and good citizenship collide from boyhood into adult life.

Bailey Fount, a wounded veteran on leave, is drawn into the orbit of Josephine Oaklin at an Indiana art museum. Their uneasy connection turns into a story about pride, recovery, and seeing past polished surfaces.

A warm, funny set of illustrated letters Tarkington sent to his nephews while traveling abroad. The book shows his playful family side, full of teasing, affection, and travel impressions.

This posthumous volume gathers Tarkington's thoughts on writing for the stage, producing plays, and living with audiences. It reads like an informal conversation about theater craft and theatrical life.

A nonfiction collection of reflective pieces, humor, and brief essays, including Looking Forward to the Great Adventure. It shows Tarkington thinking aloud about age, optimism, memory, and everyday absurdities.

This volume collects Tarkington's correspondence with Dr. Abraham Panofsky during the last years of his life. The letters offer a quieter, more personal view of the writer than the novels do.

A general collection of Tarkington stories, likely meant to showcase the range of his shorter work. Expect a mix of humor, observation, and neatly turned social situations.

This short political tale centers on the poised, sharp-eyed Mrs. Protheroe, whose presence unsettles complacent men and changes the tone of public debate. Tarkington mixes social comedy with a sly look at power and performance.

A one-act comedy of kidnappings, lovers, and an unexpectedly fastidious pirate captain named Deuteronomy Bimbo. Tarkington plays the swashbuckling setup for laughs rather than danger.

A brisk comic play that turns everyday worries and social conversation into stage business. It is a smaller, lighter Tarkington piece built around talk, timing, and embarrassment.

The last Growth novel follows an Indiana city as real estate schemes, automobiles, and smoke remake daily life. Family loyalties and old values strain under the noisy push of modern progress.

Antonio Camaradino, a generous street musician with grand feeling and comic dignity, is swept into romance after a rescue. The play balances sentiment, urban bustle, and a warmly theatrical lead.

This one-act farce sets misunderstandings, hidden messages, and romantic timing loose in a single comic setup. It is light, quick, and built for stage business.