- Title:
- Cowardice Court
- Author:
- McCutcheon, George Barr, 1866-1928
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MCCUTCHEON, GEORGE BARR: 1866-1928.
George Barr McCutcheon, eldest of the three distinguished McCutcheon brothers (see sketches of Ben Frederick and John Tinney McCutcheon), was born in Tippecanoe County, Ind., on July 26, 1866. His parents were John Barr and Clara Glick McCutcheon. John Barr McCutcheon was a farmer and stock raiser. He had literary tastes (he is said to have written a play which he cast from among his neighbors and produced locally), but he was primarily a follower of agriculture, and a follower good enough to be selected, from among all those eligible on the good black earth of Tippecanoe County, to take charge of the first farm owned by Purdue University after it was opened as Indiana's "agricultural and mechanical" educational institution.
George Barr McCutcheon attended rural schools and, after the family had moved to town, those of Lafayette, Ind. He and his brothers all wrote and drew for amusement–probably not discouraged by their father–and the first remembered literary effort of George Barr is an unfinished narrative entitled "Panther Jim": it is to be feared that dime novels had somehow been introduced into the McCutcheon household.
George Barr–and in due time his brothers–entered Purdue University, that institution harboring in that period, besides the McCutcheons, George Ade and Booth Tarkington–strange worshippers at the shrine of agriculture and mechanics.
During his brief enrollment (1882-83) George Barr reported student activities for the LAFAYETTE JOURNAL and, soon finding more glamour in the newspaper world, left education to take full-time employment. In 1893 he left the JOURNAL for the LAFAYETTE DAILY COURIER, where he acted as city editor until 1901.
After his establishment as a novelist, McCutcheon moved to New York. He married Mrs. Marie Van Antwerp Fay on Sept. 26, 1904. He died on Oct. 23, 1928.
Summarizing McCutcheon's literary career, S. G. B., writing in the Dictionary of American Biography, says:
"McCutcheon's first published story was 'The AnteMortem Condition of George Ramor,' which appeared in the NATIONAL MAGAZINE, October 1896. His letters in dialect, 'Waddleton Mail,' had previously had newspaper publication. In spare moments at the editorial office he wrote a romance, Pootoo's Gods, which at first sold poorly, but later, under the new title, Nedra (1905), became a season's success. Graustark (1901), written in the same way and sold for $500, brought McCutcheon his first fame and is said to have cleared over $250,000 for publishers and theatrical producers. The publishers later voluntarily paid him royalties. This tale of a mythical Balkan country, whose name was a combination of the German words Grau and Stark, with its capital Edelweiss and its princess Yetive, actually deceived many readers who wrote to ask McCutcheon for the best route to Graustark. His next romances were Castle Craneycrow (1902), Brewster's Millions (1902), and The Sherrods (1903). To test the sales value of his name he published Brewster's Millions under the pseudonym Richard Greaves. It became a best seller when The Sherrods had only moderate sales …
"McCutcheon wrote with zest and lived for the time in his own romances. For Graustark he prepared a complete geographical and genealogical plan. He wrote only one draft, with pencil, from an elaborate outline, and produced about a thousand words a day. He worked best in the afternoon, but he frequently wrote in the evenings. Though his success was in the realm of romance, he much preferred realism. With an output of almost two books a year, he published much that was hasty and slight. Even at his best, he can hardly be called a great romanticist, but he furnished wholesome, not too extravagant, romances to a public weary of extreme realism and materialism. One editorial at the time of his death said that he supplied innocent happiness for 'many college boys, kitchen maids, and daughters of millionaires' (NEW YORK TIMES, Oct. 24, 1928) …"
Condensed from S. G. B., Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. XII.
- Pootoo's Gods. (Reissued in 1905 as
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1905.
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1908.
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1910.
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Chicago, 1910.
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1916.
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1916.
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New York, 1919.
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1926.
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Close X - Books Once Were Men: an Essay for Booklovers.
New York, 1931.
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Close X
- Pootoo's Gods. (Reissued in 1905 as
Nedra.)
- Publication Year:
- 1906
- Source:
- New York: Dodd Mead & Company, 1906.
- Bookmark:
- https://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/inauthors/VAA2353
COWARDICE
COURT
BY
GEORGE BARR
Mc CUTCHEON
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BYHARRISON FISHER
AND DECORATIONS BY
THEODORE B HAPGOOD
NEW YORK 1906 DODD MEAD & COMPANY
Copyright, 1906
BY DODD, MEAD,
AND COMPANY
Published March, 1906
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A.
page: [][View Page []]Switch to Image ModeCLOSE Page []CONTENTS
- I. IN WHICH A YOUNG MAN TRESPASSES 1
- II. IN WHICH A YOUNG WOMAN TRESPASSES 21
- III. IN WHICH A DOG TRESPASSES 42
- IV. IN WHICH THE TRUTH TRESPASSES 64
- V. IN WHICH DAN CUPID TRESPASSES 87
- VI. IN WHICH A GHOST TRESPASSES 109
- VII. IN WHICH THE AUTHOR TRESPASSES 121
ILLUSTRATIONS
- Frontispiece
- "'So you are putting me off your place? Oh, how lovely!'" [Page 34] 30
- "She was her own mistress and privileged to ride as often as she pleased" [Page 42] 68
- "'Poor old Bonaparte!' was all he said in reply" [Page 61] 96
- "'Good heaven, Randolph, go to him! He is hurt'" [Page 135] 122
