Roberts, Kenneth

▪ American author

born Dec. 8, 1885, Kennebunk, Maine, U.S.

died July 21, 1957, Kennebunkport, Maine

      American journalist and novelist who wrote fictional reconstructions of the American Revolution.

      Roberts worked as a journalist until 1917, when he began service as a captain in the Intelligence Section of the U.S. Army's Siberian Expeditionary Force. He was staff correspondent of the Saturday Evening Post from 1919 until 1928, when he devoted himself to writing fiction. Believing that the past is only poorly understood through historical accounts, Roberts published Arundel (1930), a fictional treatment of the Revolutionary War.

      He is best known for Northwest Passage (1937), dealing with the career of the American frontier soldier Maj. Robert Rogers, and Rabble In Arms (1933), a celebration of Revolutionary heroes who fought the British under conditions of great hardship. Roberts researched his books carefully and was devoted to arguing over minute points of American history. He considered his home state a last outpost of rugged individualism, and several of his books are set there.

* * *