Kenneth Roberts

Kenneth Lewis Roberts (December 8, 1885 – July 21, 1957) was an American author of historical novels. After serving as an Army lieutenant during the American Siberian campaign in the Russian Civil War in 1919, Roberts worked first as a journalist, and then as a popular novelist. Born in Kennebunk, Maine, Roberts specialized in Regionalist historical fiction. He often wrote about his native state and its terrain, also depicting other upper New England states and scenes. For example, Langdon Towne, the chief character of Roberts's "Northwest Passage", is depicted as being from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. At a key point in the novel, Towne and his companions, fighting for their lives, trudge through what is now the Northeast Kingdom region of Vermont.

Key novels of Roberts's work include:

*"Arundel" (1929) - American Revolution
*"The Lively Lady" (1931) - War of 1812
*"Rabble in Arms" (1933) - The American Revolution; sequel to "Arundel"
*"Captain Caution" (1934)
*"Northwest Passage" (1937) - French and Indian War
*"Oliver Wiswell" (1940) - The American Revolution from a loyalist's perspective
*"Boon Island" (1955)
*"Lydia Bailey" (1947) - The Haitian Revolution and the First Barbary War
*"The Battle of Cowpens" (1958) - American Revolution battle and turning point

Roberts graduated from Cornell University in 1908, where he wrote the lyrics for two Cornell fight songs. He was also a member of the Quill and Dagger society.

Kenneth L. Roberts' first three books were written to promote the Florida land boom of the 1920s. They were "Sun Hunting" (1922), "Florida Loafing" (1925), and "Florida" (1926). In his subsequent books which listed 'other books by this author', these three were not mentioned. Many people lost money in the bust that followed, and perhaps Roberts wanted to disassociate himself from his role in promoting the boom.

In 1957 he received a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation "for his historical novels which have long contributed to the creation of greater interest in our early American history."

Roberts described his life in detail in his autobiography, "I Wanted to Write".

Dowsing

Late in his career, Roberts became acquainted with Henry Gross, a retired Maine game warden and amateur water dowser. He and Gross began a long association to use Gross' supposed dowsing abilities to find deposits of water, petroleum, uranium, and diamonds. Roberts documented his experiences in three nonfiction books that were popular successes, but received much criticism from the scientific community.

*"Henry Gross and his Dowsing Rod" (1951) Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday.
*"The Seventh Sense" (1953) Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday.
*"Water Unlimited" (1957) Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday.

References

*"Kenneth Roberts," "Dictionary of Literary Biography" 9:313-318. (1981).
*Janet Harris, "A Century of American History in Fiction: Kenneth Roberts' Novels," 1976.
* [http://www.dartmouth.edu/~library/Library_Bulletin/Apr1990/LB-A90-Bales.html "'At the nadir of discouragement': The Story of Dartmouth's Kenneth Roberts Collection," by Jack Bales, Dartmouth College Library Bulletin, n.s., 30 (April 1990), pp. 45-53.]
*Jack Bales, "Kenneth Roberts: The Man and His Works", 1989.
*Jack Bales, "Kenneth Roberts", 1993.