K.R. in the Blogosphere: “Northwest Passage” in the News – a Blast from the Past

My Military History has a nice post showing snippets of news from the past regarding Roberts’ novel Northwest Passage and the movie based upon that book.  Russ, the author of the blog, sent me links to these contemporary news bits, but I’ve been unable to do anything with them yet (doctoral work … ‘nough said).  I’m glad he worked up something showing contemporary reaction to Roberts’ work.

Hopefully I’ll be able to take a gander at these clippings in more detail in the near future; until then, stop on by Russ’ blog and enjoy.

K.R. in the Blogosphere: Enter a Raffle to Win a Trip to Rocky Pastures

The Maine Humanities Council has put together a wonderful raffle for a tour of Kenneth Roberts’ Rocky Pastures estate.  If you win, you also receive a lunch at Arundle Wharf, and a basket of “good Maine books.”  Hurry, though!  They are raffling only 100 tickets, so get yours!

You can purchase your ticket on-line at the following link: Kenneth Roberts Rocky Pastures Tour.

Kenneth Roberts' Rocky Pastures. Courtesy Maine Humanities Council

K.R. in the News: Writer and Lover of Good Maine Food

I came across a neat article by Susan Lovell at The Forecaster that discusses Marjorie Moser (Roberts’ niece) and her recipe for fish chowder.  It seems that a new edition of Good Maine Food has been published recently with a new forward by Sandra Oliver, who, according to the article, is a food historian from Maine.  Ms. Lovell provides a kind word for Good Maine Food towards the end of the article:

But “Good Maine Food” is truly an excellent cookbook. I just happened to be amused by the recipes for cooking liver. Many of the recipes were sent to Roberts by people who read his “Trending into Maine,” published in 1930, in which he reminisced about dishes served to him during his youth. Mosser used those recipes and added new favorites as times and tastes changed.

Ms. Lovell also provides a brief bio of Roberts and his recipe for his grandmother’s ketchup, one of Roberts’ favorite recipes if I’m not mistaken.

Here is a link to the new edition of Good Maine Food.

Kenneth Roberts – a man known for his exceptional writing … and his love for good Maine food.

K.R. in the Blogosphere: Jack Bales’ bio of Kenneth Roberts

Okay, so what I found wasn’t on a blog, but instead on Dartmouth’s library website.  Nevertheless, I found a brief bio on Kenneth Roberts written by his biographer, Jack Bales (of whom I’ve written on in the past).  This short bio is a great glimps into Kenneth Roberts the man.

What stuck out to me was Bales’ discussion on Kenneth Roberts’ discouragement over the lack of sales and acclaim of his first several novels during the first 6 years of his writing (which included my all-time favorite novel, Rabble in Arms).  Bales states:

After exhaustively researching Benedict Arnold’s march to capture Quebec during the first year of the American Revolution, Roberts wrote Arundel (1930), which he soon followed with The Lively Lady (1931) and Rabble in Arms (I933). By I934, none of the books had sold very well, and as Roberts recalled years later, some prominent critics had pointedly disdained his literary efforts :

I understood them to say my dialogue was inept, I was deplorably weak in delineating character, knew nothing about plot-structure, couldn’t interpret history adequately and, generally speaking, would be well advised to turn to other means of livelihood. I’d worked hard on those books for [six] years without any noticeable reward or acclaim; and their reception and sales were discouraging in the extreme so much so that I was broke and on the verge of abandoning the course I’d charted for myself [six] years before. (Bales)

While Roberts was generally known as an opinionated, curmudgeonly man, this piece by Bales reveals that popular sentiment did not paint a full picture of Roberts.  Roberts ended up receiving a letter from the president of Dartmouth (Ernest Martin Hopkins) which praised his works, thus serving as a turning point in Roberts’ career.

This, then, brings us to an interesting piece of Roberts trivia: though Roberts was a native of Maine and loved Maine with practically his whole being, Dartmouth serves as the home of his works and correspondence because of Hopkins’ letter and Roberts’ receiving an honorary doctorate from Dartmouth.

 

More Stuff Forthcoming….

I must confess that the lack of posts have been due to my Ph. D. studies.  I am, by necessity, reading more about the history of philosophy and the history of doctrinal anthropology than I am about Kenneth Roberts.  Fortunately, a friend of this blog – Russ Grimm from MyMilitaryHistory - has been keeping his eye out for K.R. stuff, and boy, he came through recently.  So, I’ll be posting things periodically that Russ has found.  In the meantime, I’ll do my best to stay current on this blog!

K.R. In Current News: 300th Anniversary of the Wreck of the Nottingham Galley

The Maine State Museum is honoring the 300th anniversary of the wreck of the Nottingham Galley, the subject of Kenneth Roberts’ Boone Island.  Take a look at the brief write up of the exhibit here.  If you’re in Maine, go visit and let me know how it is!

*Update: Here is a blog post on Kenneth Roberts’ account of the Nottingham Galley wreck, which particularly focuses on the cannibalism that occured while the men were stranded on the island.

“Oliver Wiswell”: an Authoritative Work?

As stated before, I am catching up on Kenneth Roberts news in the blogosphere.  I try to post on matters I find relevant and helpful to those interested in learning more about one of America’s least-known great authors.  However, sometimes you’ve just got to post things out of the ordinary.

Over at On, Now, to the 3rd Level, Daniel Yordy discusses what I believe to be about community, particularly Christian community (not so much a church in the traditional sense, but a community in the sense of a commune?).  In this long post, Yordy discusses the issue of freedom and the “lie” that freedom does not result from war (I hope I understand his point correctly).  Now, what I find interesting is that Yordy quotes favorably Roberts’ Oliver Wiswell seemingly as an authoritative work in this matter.  Here’s what Yordy states:

If you want to know for certain that the American Revolution had absolutely nothing to do with freedom, just read the first three chapters of Oliver Wiswell by Kenneth Roberts. The American Revolution opposed freedom in every possible way. In reality, it was nothing more than an excuse to kill one’s neighbor and to burn down his home.

While I believe that Roberts was faithful to his commitment to accurately portray historical events (which I believe is backed up by his tedious research), I’m not sure how far one is to take the fictional aspect of his work as authoritative.  The chapters Yordy refers to, if I am not mistaken, are written from the perspective of the fictional character, Oliver Wiswell, who is a Tory living in America during the Revolutionary War.  The character gives his view, as a Tory, on the war.  While chapters 1 – 3 are technically Roberts’ words, he intends to portray common Tory sentiment of the war. On the other hand, I believe Roberts himself would side with the “rabble” who fought against England.

This issue raises the question on the role of historical fiction in one’s research and support.  If historical fiction is written in the manner of Kenneth Roberts (backed by significant research and historical facts presented as faithfully as possible), can it be used authoritatively? At the very least those parts that are historical fact in nature, as opposed to fiction written with no intention of presenting any historical fact (I am sure there are numerous forms of fiction; here I use “fiction” in its most general form, as a story made up by its author, not reflecting any true person(s) or even(s))?

Personally, I believe one treads on shaky ground if he bases an argument, in part or in whole (and outside of the realm of literature and the arts), on historical fiction; however, my opinion may be a result of my doctoral studies in which any reliance upon fictional works is frowned upon.

Kenneth Roberts’ Estate: Rocky Pastures AND a Cottage!

Interested in knowing more about Kenneth Roberts?  While there is little on the internet on him (hopefully this website remedies that to some extent), people in Maine still seek to keep Roberts’ legacy alive.  According to A Guide to Maine Museums, some (or all?) of Roberts’ estate is kept at a Kennebunk, Maine museum called the Brick Store Museum.  Oh, to be able to visit Maine for more than two days (as I did in August 2009)!  If you have a chance to visit beautiful Maine, stop by Kennebunk to visit the Brick Store Museum.

Courtesy Kennebunk Beach Realty

Speaking of Roberts’ estate, I got to wondering if his house in Kennebunk had sold.  So, I Googled his info and stumbled across a real estate site that listed “Kenneth Roberts Cottage House at Kennebunk Beach.“  It’s only listed for $840,000!  You can view some pics of this cottage here.  So, not only did Roberts live at 39 Rocky Pastures Rd in Kennebunkport, ME, he had himself a nice little cottage as well.

Speaking of Roberts’ Rocky Pastures estate, it’s still for sale for a mere $2.7 million.

K.R. in the Blogosphere: The Beak Speaks

I am trying to catch up on things for this site, on of which consists of finding blogs that reference Kenneth Roberts.  So, bear with me for any redundancy, hopefully soon I’ll be caught up!

Over at The Beak Speaks, Beakerkin (?) provides a favorable review of Rabble in Arms, my favorite of Roberts’ works.  Interestingly, the Beak has read and reviewed other works of Roberts, such as Arundel and Oliver Wiswell.  Great to see that there are some who appreciate Roberts’ works today.  Though only half a century removed from the height of his career, he is largely unknown today.  Hopefully this blog will help in getting his name out there, especially to those who want to read good historical fiction.

Any thoughts on how to make this blog better?

***Update 9/2/10*** I found another The Beak Speaks review of a K.R. book, this one on The Battle of Cowpens, probably one of the lesser known books written by Roberts.

K.R. in the Blogosphere: Summer Reading List

Kenneth Roberts recently made a summer reading list!  Oliver Wiswell was the book of choice by USA Conservative News.  Here’s the opening line when Roberts was mentioned:

The best historical novels ever written about the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 are by Kenneth Roberts, a very popular author 70 years ago that most people today have never heard of.

This statement, in my opinion, is true on several levels, unfortunately so in regards to the last part “…that most people today have never heard of.”

“One Eternal Day” also suggested Oliver Wiswell for summer reading.  Jim Skaggs, the blog author, also suggests Rabble in Arms, The Lively Lady, and Captain Caution.  I like what he says about the quality of Roberts’ work: he makes John Jakes’ work look like “pulp fiction.”  It’s great to see that there are others who appreciate Roberts’ work.

Arundel made it on the reading list at the Hackley Public Library.  A rather trite review of the book, but I think it’s because the author didn’t like it too much; they only gave Arundel a 5.  Oh well, not all are fans!