This was first published 1919.
Set in middle-class middle-America, the story follows the life of Ramsey Milholland from boyhood into adolescence and young manhood. Tarkington writes with humor and sympathy, as Ramsey faces trials and tribulations with grammar school, first love, and going off to university. Although there are many light-hearted moments, the author and the reader know that the horrors of World War I loom on the horizon. Compare the illustration for the first chapter — a little boy playing soldier and marching in bright sunlight — to that for the final chapter — real soldiers moving through the smokey darkness of a real battlefield. A tone of heartfelt patriotism colors the entire book.
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Two excerpts to whet your appetite:
Quote:
Arithmetic then being the order of business before the house, he was sent alone to the blackboard, supposedly to make lucid the proper reply to a fatal conundrum in decimals, and under the glare and focus of the whole room he breathed heavily and itched everywhere; his brain at once became sheer hash. He consumed as much time as possible in getting the terms of the problem stated in chalk; then, affecting to be critical of his own handiwork, erased what he had done and carefully wrote it again. After that, he erased half of it, slowly retraced the figures, and stepped back as if to see whether perspective improved their appearance.
Again he lifted the eraser.
“Ramsey Milholland!”
“Ma’am?”
“Put down that eraser!”
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Quote:
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The orator was impassioned; he shouted himself into coughing fits, gesticulated, grew purple; he was so hot that his collar caved in and finally swooned upon his neck in soggy exhaustion, prostrate round his thunderings.
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5 full-page pen & ink illustrations, 21 half-page "chapter head" illustrations. Drop caps.