Roberts, Kenneth Lewis, 1885-1957

Novelist.

American author specializing in the writing of richly detailed historical fiction.

American novelist, born Kennebunk, Maine, 1887. Staff correspondent for the Saturday evening post, 1919-; author of many historical novels including Arundel (1930), Northwest passage (1937), and Oliver Wiswell (1940); received special Pulitzer Prize for his historical fiction (1957). Died, Kennebunkport, Maine, 1957.

Kenneth Lewis Roberts was born in Kennebunkport, Maine in 1885. In 1908 he earned an A.B. degree at Cornell University where he had been editor-in-chief of the Cornell Widow. The following year he joined the staff of the Boston Post. He served in World War I as a Military Intelligence Officer. Well known as staff correspondent for the Saturday Evening Post and as an author of travel books, Roberts retired in 1928 to write the Chronicles of Arundel, a series of Maine historical novels; the series eventually included Arundel (1930), The Lively Lady (1931), Rabble in Arms (1933), and Captain Caution (1934). His later novels included Northwest Passage (1937), Oliver Wiswell (1940), Lydia Bailey (1946), and Boon Island (1955 : about an actual shipwreck in early Maine history). He died in 1957.

Author; b. Kennebunk, Me.

Roberts specialized in the writing of richly detailed historical fiction.

Kenneth Lewis Roberts was born on December 8, 1885 in Kennebunk, Maine. He was a reporter, humor columnist, editor, and historical novelist. His major works include Arundel (1930), Northwest Passage (1937), and Oliver Wiswell (1940). Roberts died in Kennebunkport, Maine, on July 21, 1957.

Professor of Civil Engineering, Cornell University.

American journalist, author, editor.

Kenneth Roberts was born in Kennebunk, Maine, and educated at Cornell. He worked as a journalist and wrote articles for various periodicals, making his name as a humorist, and served in military intelligence in World War I, while continuing to publish articles under a pseudonym. Booth Tarkington helped him plan his first novel, Arundel, and he became a master of painstakingly researched historical fiction, perhaps most notably Northwest Passage; he was awarded a special Pulitzer Prize for historical fiction. Roberts was a talented, diverse writer, writing several popular, criticially-acclaimed novels, and producing non-fiction throughout his life, including works on dowsing, literary criticism, his beloved Maine, and Florida.

Kenneth Lewis Roberts was born in Kennebunk, Maine, on December 8, 1885. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell University in 1908, and over the next two decades served as a reporter, special writer, humor columnist, editor, correspondent, and foreign correspondent for various nationally known newspapers and magazines. During the 1920s he wrote several works of non-fiction, and in 1928 left journalism to become a full-time author.

Roberts felt strongly about historical accuracy and conducted extensive research to provide background for his novels. The backdrop for most of his fiction was northeastern America during the periods of the French and Indian War, the American Revolution, and the War of 1812. His major works include Arundel, The Lively Lady, Rabble in Arms, Northwest Passage, Oliver Wiswell,and Lydia Bailey.Shortly before his death in 1957, Roberts received a special Pulitzer citation for his historical novels.

During World War I he served as a captain in the U.S. Army with the intelligence section of the Siberian Expeditionary Force. He was married to Anna Sieberling Mosser in Boston, Massachusetts, on February 14, 1911. Kenneth Roberts died childless in Kennebunkport, Maine, on July 21, 1957.

For further biographical information, see the National Cyclopaedia of American Biography,Vol. 48, pp. 82-83, as well as folders 87-96 of this collection.