Tarkington, Booth (Newton Booth Tarkington), 1869-1946, American author, b. Indianapolis. His most characteristic and popular works were his genial novels of life in small Middle Western towns, including The Gentleman from Indiana (1899), The Conquest of Canaan (1905), and the trilogy Growth (1927), made up of Turmoil (1915), The Magnificent Ambersons (1918; Pulitzer Prize), and The Midlander (1923). Alice Adams (1921; Pulitzer Prize), considered by some his best novel, tells of the frustrated ambitions of a romantic lower-middle-class girl. He wrote several amusing novels of boyhood and adolescence, the most notable being Penrod (1914) and Seventeen (1916). His plays include a dramatization of his own historical romance Monsieur Beaucaire (1901) and Clarence (1921).

(born July 29, 1869, Indianapolis, Ind., U.S.—died May 19, 1946, Indianapolis) U.S. novelist and dramatist. He became known for satirical and sometimes romanticized pictures of Midwesterners in humorous portrayals of boyhood and adolescence that include the young-people's classics Penrod (1914), Seventeen (1916), and Gentle Julia (1922). The trilogy Growth (1927) includes The Magnificent Ambersons (1918, Pulitzer Prize; film, 1942), which traces the decline of a once-powerful and prominent family. Alice Adams (1921; film, 1923, 1935), a searching character study, is perhaps his most finished novel.

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Tarkington is a name, which was used by the Vikings, an ancient Scandinavian people who migrated to England and then to the U.S.. They settled in Maryland, then Virginia, and later moved to Tyrrell County, North Carolina. Later they migirated to Texas and Tennessee. Others went to Indiana and Kentucky.

John Tarkington, Sr., his wife Prudence, their son John, Jr. and wife Martha, and their son William Joshua came to America in about 1668. They settled on of land in Baltimore County, Maryland. The plantation was named "The Grove".

John Tarkington was one of the original settlers of Maryland. He began to accumulate property by getting settlers to move to a certain locality. In 1675 he transported a group into the province to inhabit Cecil County and obtained for himself.

John Tarkington had a son Samuel, whom it is said was killed or kidnapped by the American Indians.

Booth Tarkington's ancestors migrated through Tyrrell County, North Carolina and then on to Indiana.

Source

Author: Irwin Anderson Watson, 1901- 1973 Title: The Pioneers Were Our Ancestors. Published: [Tulsa, Okla., 1971] Description: 2 v. in 1. illus. 29 cm. LC Call No.: CS71.A98 1971

Tarkington is also a school in south Texas about eight miles out of cleveland that is a historical marker

External links

• Tarkington Genealogy - A site dedicated to family history of the Tarkington and Tarkenton surnames.