He had not yet learned that the only safe male rebuke to a scornful female is to stay away from her - especially if that is what she desires.

It was from his home in Maine that he and his wife Susannah establiBooth Tarkingtond their relation with nearby Colby College. in 1899 and a Litt. Tarkington made a gift of some his papers to Princeton University his alma mater and his wife Susannah who survived him by over 20 years made a separate gift of his remaining papers to Colby College after his death.

He is one of only three novelists (the others being William Faulkner and John Updike) to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once.