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

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]

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. 1 2 (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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