July, 1914 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



321 



riBijii! 



You'll Agree With These Persons 



What Two Youngsters Say 



You know kids well; evidently you have not forgotten the 

 time when you were a boy yourself. There's a lot about kids 

 that never has been written, I guess. At least if it was, I never 

 read it and I read lots. But the trouble is those that write don't 

 know and those that know aren't in the writing game. The way 

 I've figured it out is that the most of those writers, after getting 

 old and grouchy sit down and write about kids as they think 

 maybe we are, and it's one bad job they make of us. 



It is much even for the author of ''Monsieur Beaucaire" and "The 

 Gentleman from Indiana," to prove himself in such a book of the Boy 

 Absolute. For such a boy is "Penrod." Mr. Tarkington has added 

 another "Story of a Bad Boy" to a list which is always ready for lengthen- 

 ing.— The New York World. 



A story of a real boy of this age as Tom 

 Sawyer was real in his. All people who 

 have been boys, or have boys, or know or 

 care anything about boys should like this 

 book. — Boston Globe. 



OL-^ 



"Penrod" devoted the most of his time 

 to just being a boy, but he had an unusual 

 number of ways of showing the subtle 

 workings of his ingenious mind. A fine 

 example of Mr. Tarkington's versatility, 

 for he shows in every line that he knows 

 that boys must be taken as they are, and 

 that there is always a way to the better 

 part of a boy who is seemingly all bad. 



-Boston Globe. 



T. R. 



On the train for Washington 

 READS 



PENROD 



By BOOTH TARKINGTON 



That Booth Tarkington ought to be named Truth Cork- 

 ington, for he certainly is a "Corker." He certainly has got 

 the goods on us Boys. Tell him to go right on and hit us 

 some more. He makes Mark Twain look like a plugged 

 nickel, or a last year's crow's nest. Only don't let him forget to 

 make these "new girls" stop gauging our dignity till we have to 

 splash 'em— and get ourselves all over "pitch-in." (?) 



All of these stories of a real human of the boy genre are now appearing 

 in book form and the whole nation is deeply indebted to Mr. Booth Tark- 

 ington. The stories have been said to rival Huck Finn. They rival no 

 one. They are the headliners in a class of their own and a new personality 

 has entered literature. In a few short months Penrod Schofield has 



become a national figure and Mr. Schofields 

 all over the country will give their sons 

 and heirs a little more tolerance and con- 

 sideration. — The Central Press Association, 

 Cleveland, O. 



"Penrod" was probably the first thing T. R. read 

 on his return, and they had a hard time getting him 

 to put down his book and talk. 



Says the New York Times editorially: That Colonel 

 Roosevelt, on a day crowded with so many activities as was Tues- 

 day for him, should yet have found it necessary to fill in his time 

 with reading, is illuminating as to his mental traits. The book 

 into which he plunged when opportunity offered, and emerged 

 when necessity compelled, was Mr. Tarkington's "Penrod." 

 Perhaps he thought that he was getting exact information about 

 boys, a not unimportant subject, from Mr. Tarkington's amusing 

 narrative. All the accredited critics seem to have taken the same 

 view, and of course the critics must be right. 



It is curious how quickly the news of a good book spreads. Suddenly 

 everybody is talking about Booth Tarkington's boy stories "Penrod" and 

 men with thin and graying hair are threatening to become bores by recall- 

 ing incidents in thdr own boyhood identical with "Penrod's" own. "Pen- 

 rod" is more than funny stories about the funny things that boys do. It 

 shows you the inside of a boy, too; explains his inscrutable and unfathom- 

 able nature, his mysterious ways, his joys and embarrassments, the things 

 that enrage him, and what things make him vainglorious and proud. — 

 The Globe and Commercial Advertiser, New York Citv. 



"Penrod" is very like the boy you were 

 at one time, the boy that I might have 

 been had the gods of sex ruled differently 

 — daring, mischievous, impulsive, quick 

 tempered, swift to resent injustice, rude of 

 tongue yet secretly heart-hungry for the 

 sympathy and approbation so seldom be- 

 stowed. Only a stone image could read 

 this book without laughing — and being 

 wiser too. — The Record Herald, Chicago, III. 



A real contribution of American literature from the standpoints of style 

 and type analysis. One long laugh from beginning to end, interrupted 

 by an occasional sigh for the tragedies of childhood so seldom apparent 

 to older people. — New York Morning Telegraph. 



Mr. Tarkington not only knows boys and the way they think and talk, 

 but he has the ability to put these things down on paper as they seem to 

 us in life. If any contemporary book can be called a classic, surely 

 "Penrod" may be ranked among the immortals of American boy life in 

 our literature. — New York Press. 



Really Illustrated by Gordon Grant. Net $1.25 



Doubleday, Page & Company 



GARDEN CITY 

 NEW YORK 



Many people cannot get books. If there is no bookstore 

 near you, we shall be glad to send books on approval 



