Kenneth Roberts. Unflinching truth.pdf

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extracted text: Literary Personality — XLVI Kenneth Koberts: Unflinching Truth uthor of 26 books Roberts was a highly successful news op paper and magazine writer long before his fifth novel, “Northwest Passage,” became his first best-seller in 1937. The former Boston Post columnist and Saturday Evening Post staff writer had just completed proof reading for his seventh novel, “Water Unlimited,” when he died in 1957. Roberts was noted above all for his meticulous attention to accuracy and detail in everything he wrote. His historical novels often were called far better history than that in the history books. Roberts himself said, “I think that most historians, like most professional men, should have stuck to farming.” Born in Kennebunk, Me., Roberts was graduated from Cornell University in 1908. For eight years he was a reporter, special writer and humor columnist for the Boston Post. Be fore joining the army in World War I to become a captain in the intelligence section of the Siberian Expeditionary Force, he worked briefly for Puck and Life. He became a staff writer for the Saturday Evening Post during the editorship of the famed George Horace Lorimer, but resigned in 1930 to write “Arundel.” Several of Roberts’ ancestors fought in the American Revolution. Family stories of their activities, which he heard as a boy, helped to turn him toward historical writing. fl n irrepressible and highly-acclaimed debunker, Roberts would not hesitate to report what he thought was accurate — provided only that he could “demonstrate its truth.” 60 Panorama In 1921, when only 35, he campaigned vigorously for im migration restrictions, claiming that “the scum of the world, vermin-ridden and useless” was “clamoring to get over here.” When Senator Colt of the Senate Immigration Committee countered that no emergency legislation was needed to con trol immgiration, Roberts wrote for the Saturday Evening Post an article “The Existence of an Emergency” which brought a nation-wide clamor for action.' Later Roberts was told by W. W. Husband, commissioner general of immigration, that he had done more than any other person or agency to bring about the passage of immigration restrictions. Twenty years later, Roberts was to turn his guns on the founding fathers themselves. The heroes of Bunker Hill, he wrote, were not the high-minded righteous crusaders that schoolbook historians always have pretended they were. Another example of his unflinching respect for the “truth” as he saw it was his defense of the revolutionary war heroturned-traitor, Benedict Arnold. “Nothing is so valuable,” wrote Roberts, “to a nation as the truth. Never, though I myself be damned for not doing it, will I curse Benedict Arnold.” In his “Rabble in Arms” Roberts contended that Arnold really had a high motive for his treason, since he thought it better to turn the colonies back to England than to leave them to fall into the hands of France — as he thought they would through the incompetence of the Continental Congress. TO oberts spent three years of grinding research to establish the authenticity of the background for “Northwest Passage” in the period of the French and Indian wars, 1754-63. Last May Roberts received a special citation from the Pulitzer Prize Award Committee for “his historical novels which have long contributed to the creation of greater in terest in our early American history.” He managed to save plenty of time apart from his writing for his frequent hot-tempered feuds with politicians, historians, and scientists. His private causes included most recently water dowsing powers of Henry Gross, Federal game warden from York County, to whom he devoted two books, “Henry Gross and His Dowsing Rod” and “The Seventh Sense.” November 1958 61 Roberts emphatically believed in the water-finding power of the forked stick and offered skeptics carefully documented “proof” that the rod would turn downward to find any under ground water. * * * Stupidity Unlimited DR. Heini Hediger, famous European animal be haviorist and dihector of the zoo in this city, has opened what he calls a museum of human imbecility in relation to caged animals. It consists of a collection of objects, including many sharp weapons found in cages or taken from vi sitors with sadistic inclinations or at best a thought less attitude toward captive beasts. Dr. Hediger recently escorted a man from the gardens who was trying to jab a monkey with a fiveinch needle. His staff also Has found rocks weighing up to three pounds that had been hurled at the bears. According to Dr. Hediger, some visitors bring umbrellas into the zoo for the sole purpose of open ing them suddenly to frighten the big cats, but he is unable to explain the presence of briefcases, hats and pairs of shoes and slippers that have been found in cages. He also says that an elderly and normally tor pid crocodile in an open tepid tank of water is the favorite target of a large number of coins. He has examined currency recovered and found that British pennies and Italian lire predominate. No Swiss mo ney has been found. The director thinks the coin throwers are im pelled by some propitiatory motive akin to offerings to the ancient gods. * 62 Panorama
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