Peter (novel)

Peter: A Novel Of Which He Is Not The Hero is a novel published in 1908 by Francis Hopkinson Smith, which was the sixth best selling book in the United States in 1908, and ninth best-selling book of 1909.[3] It sold in excess of 100,000 copies.[4]

Peter
First edition
AuthorFrancis Hopkinson Smith
IllustratorArthur I. Keller
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreNovel
Set inNew York
Published1908 by Charles Scribner's Sons
Publication date
August 29, 1908[1]
Media typePrint (hardcover)
Pages482 pp[2]
OCLC6209999
813.49
LC ClassPZ3.S647

Plot

The book is set in New York City, but the New York of a few decades prior to 1908 when the book was released. Peter Grayson is an aging banker of the old school; an upstanding and cultured gentleman, and not prone to engage in speculation. Peter also influences the younger generation around him, including a young man who comes to New York to work in the financial world.

Reception

As Smith was a well-known and popular American author of his day, the book was widely reviewed, with mixed to positive reviews. For example, H.L. Mencken wrote "It is a delightful world that Mr. Smith inhabits--a world made up of loyalty, true love and simple faith. ... there is not much plot in the book, but what there is is not without its grip."[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]

Released in late August 1908 with illustrations by Arthur I. Keller, the book soon made it onto best seller lists, becoming the sixth-best selling book of 1908 and ninth-best of 1909. It sold particularly well in December 1908, based on the fact that it went through four printings that month alone.[4] The novel was never adapted to the stage or film.

References
  1. (29 August 1908). Announcement of New York Books: Novels by J.B. Connolly and Hopkinson Smith Among Those Out To-Day -- Herbert Trench's Poems, The New York Times
  2. Catalogue of Copyright Entries, Part 1, New series Vol. 5 (July - Dec 2008), p. 364 (2008)
  3. Hackett, Alice Payne. Seventy Years of Best Sellers 1895-1965 (1967) (the lists for 1895-1912 in this volume are derived from the lists published in The Bookman (New York))
  4. (9 January 2009). Advertisement, New York Tribune (stating over 100,000 copies sold with the following editions: 1 st (Aug. 29, 1908); 2nd (Sept. 24); 3rd (Nov. 9); 4th (Dec. 3); 5th (Dec. 11); 6th (Dec. 17); 7th (Dec 23); 8th (Jan 5, 1909))
  5. Mencken, Henry L. The Good, The Bad and the Best Sellers, The Smart Set, pp. 358-59 (Vol. 26, No. 3, November 1908)
  6. Middleton, George. F. Hopkinson Smith's "Peter" (book review), The Bookman (New York) (October 1908), p. 153
  7. A Guide to the New Books The Bohemian Magazine, Vol. XV, No. 5 (November 1908), p. 714
  8. Doty, Madeline. Some Fiction, Pearson's Magazine (US), p. 563 (Vol. XX, No. 5, November 1908)
  9. Brigham, Johnson. The Banker In Literature, pp. 235-38 (1910)
  10. (19 September 1908). By Hopkinson Smith (book review), The New York Times
  11. (29 August 1908). Recent Fiction by H. Hopkinson Smith and Others, New York Tribune
  12. Recent Fiction and the Critics, Current Literature, Vol. XLV, No. 5, p. 580-81 (November 1908)
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