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Ramsey Milholland

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Pages: 94

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About this book

A Decoration Day parade sets young Ramsey Milholland asking his grandfather what fighting in battle felt like. The boy imagines himself marching beside the band, while the older man recalls fear and explains his belief in freedom and the Union. Their conversation gives Booth Tarkington's novel an opening built on the distance between a child's easy certainties and an adult's memories.

Later, university life brings Ramsey into debates and awkward encounters with other people's opinions. After a debate, he and his roommate Fred react in astonishment as a senior praises Miss Yocum's ability and appearance. Talk turns from campus personalities to the war in Europe, which still seems remote to the students. Readers interested in American fiction about growing up will find comic dialogue alongside questions of patriotism, conviction and the ways young people learn to judge others.

About the author

Booth Tarkington

Booth Tarkington was an Indianapolis novelist, dramatist, and chronicler of social change in the American Midwest. The Gentleman from Indiana, his 1899 debut, follows a newspaper editor in a fictional Indiana town, while Penrod collects the misadventures of a Midwestern boy.