I'm not sure he's wrong about automobiles," he said. "With all their speed forward they may be a step backward in civilization -- that is, in spiritual civilization. It may be that they will not add to the beauty of the world, nor to the life of men's souls.

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.