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

Posted on March 14, 2011 by Danny

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.

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Filed under: Good Maine Food, K.R. Current News, Kenneth Roberts the Man, Marjorie Moser | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a comment »

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

Posted on March 11, 2011 by Danny

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.

 

Filed under: K.R. in the Blogosphere, Kenneth Roberts the Man | Tagged: , , , | 5 Comments »

More Stuff Forthcoming….

Posted on March 11, 2011 by Danny

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!

Filed under: Random Kenneth Roberts Stuff | Tagged: , , | Leave a comment »

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

Posted on March 10, 2011 by Danny

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.

Filed under: Boon Island, K.R. Current News | Tagged: , , , | Leave a comment »

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