1920. September 9: Tarkington’s play Poldekin, a polemic tragicomedy-satire about a Bolshevik who is sent to America to foment revolution but instead learns to love democracy, opens at the Park Theatre on Broadway. September 16: a blast rips the corner outside the J.P. Morgan bank on Wall Street. 38 people die, with another 143 wounded.

“Beasley’s Christmas Party adapted by C.W. Munger from the story by Booth Tarkington running November 26 - December 19, 2010 at Merrimack Repertory Theatre. Directed by Carl Forsman featuring Joey Collins, Crystal Finn and Tony Ward. Scenery designed by Beowulf Boritt, costumes designed by Theresa Squire, lighting designed by Josh Bradford, sound designed by Will Pickens and stage managed by Emily F. McMullen.” This is the last time this year I’ll post about this production. I swear it!

“In keeping with its horse-and-buggy setting,” says critic Don Aucoin, “‘Party,’’ now receiving its New England premiere at Merrimack Repertory Theatre, is an old-fashioned work whose appeal depends on your willingness to have your heartstrings tugged by a story of simple human kindness.” Okay, I’m willing. Aucoin almost makes that sound like a bad thing… but then they’ve been saying that kind of thing about Tarkington for years.

It’s still not cool to like Tarkington… but I’m very happy that adaptations of Beasley are opening up a new audience for Tarkington after a century has passed. And Collins is perfectly right: Beasley’s Christmas Party perfectly captures the simple joy of the season, in the same way that Tiny Tim was a crucial element of A Christmas Carol.

“Colonel Thomas C. Bean first wandered into this story during a research phase to verify Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Booth Tarkington had actually written the epitaph on Harry Peyton Steger’s gravesite in Willow Wild Cemetery in Bonham. Sure enough, Tarkington’s words were there, etched in stone. But another phrase on a nearby stone also caught my eye that day. It said, ‘Born in Washington City, D.C., died in Bonham, Texas on July 24, 1887. Aged about 70 years.’” If that’s ain’t a hook, I don’t know what is.

The promotional copy for Indiana author Ray Boomhower’s Fighting for Equality reads thus: “Famed Indiana author Booth Tarkington once took on the task of naming three of Indianapolis’s most outstanding citizens. Two of the three he named—former president Benjamin Harrison and legendary poet James Whitcomb Riley—were well-known people. The third, however, was someone whose memorable accomplishments have become lost to history…”

The advent of eBooks has made Tarkington’s public domain works much more readily accessible… and readable. One website devoted to eBooks, “Read Kindle Books for Free,” has a very nice, insightful, concise review of a Kindle Book version of The Guest of Quesnay. “Dave_42″ has obviously read a good deal of Tarkington and done a little bit of homework about the author, too.

Tarkington was very much a believer in the metaphysical, and wrote at length on the subject in The World Does Move and “As I See Myself.” As a young man, he often participated in seances at the Tarkington home, very much in vogue at the turn of the 20th Century. As James Woodress, Tarkington’s biographer, doesn’t even mention The Ghost Story, this article, is of some note. Also worth noting is that the subtitle to the play is, “A One-Act Play for Persons of No Great Age.”

The Merrimack Repertory Theatre is touting its “REGIONAL PREMIERE!” to be staged 11/26/2010 - 12/19/2010. “Magically and imaginatively delivered, it is a distinctly American and spiritually uplifting holiday story for the whole family filled with humor, heart and hope.”

“It is believed that the Asheville Historical Resources Commission’s copy stored at Ramsey Library is the only copy of the film. It was obviously re-copied onto CBEMA film stock at an unknown date. The AFI catalog notes that there were 7 reels in the original film. The reels at Ramsey Library number only 4. The film was discovered in Russia in the 1980s.”