Penrod Jashber is the story of an 11-year-old middle-class boy in a small Midwest city and his dream to become a detective. Penrod Schofield decides to become detective George Jashber and with his friends sets up a detective agency. He and his gang spend a great deal of effort sleuthing and getting into all kinds of boy mischief as they try to prove to themselves that “their man” really is a horse thief. When reality confronts them and exposes Penrod’s fantasy world for what it is, Penrod discards his alias “Jashber”, closes the agency, and he and the gang return to their boyhood activities.

Initially serialized in Cosmopolitan magazine before being published in 1929, Penrod Jashber was preceded by Penrod and Penrod and Sam, (both available at Gutenberg.org.) which were collections of short stories about Penrod and his friends. Penrod Jashber is a complete novel taking place in what could be Tarkington’s own home town, Indianapolis, Indiana.

Booth Tarkington (July 29, 1869—May 19, 1946) grew up in Indianapolis and wrote about the places and people he was familiar with. His idyllic settings made his novels and plays popular with the public and represented an idyllic life that many people wanted for themselves and for their families. During the 1910’s and 1920’s, Tarkington was a bestseller author and a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction (Alice Adams and The Magnificent Ambersons).

We currently have 14 Booth Tarkington titles at this site with more to come. Readers who enjoy Booth Tarkington’s style of fiction writing might also enjoy Mary’s Neck, The Fighting Littles, or The Heritage of Hatcher Ide. If you are interested in helping us make more notable books of this kind available to readers, then come join us and proofread a few pages. For more information about how to volunteer, check out our companion site, Distributed Proofreaders Canada.