Why Europe Leaves Home

[New York]: The Bobbs-Merrill Company Publishers, 1922. First. Very Good-. First edition in dark maroon cloth It is believed to have been Robert's personal copy, autographed on front fly leaf in ink "Kenneth L Roberts, Kennebunk Beach, July 28, 1926" and annotated with pencil comments on several pages as well as inked comments on the rear endpaper and rear board adjacent to pasted newspaper clippings There is no documented provenance for this belief, but the annotations appear in the same hand as the author's signature, and the nature of the comments appears authorial More research would be needed to confirm this however, so I am only offering this copy as a signed book, not necessarily the author's own


This was Roberts' first book, based on his journalistic experiences during and just after World War I For those of us who grew up reading his many thrilling and thoroughly researched historical fiction works, such as Arundel, Northwest Passage and Oliver Wiswell, it is disappointing to find in this work that he was very anti-immigration and anti-Semitic

Kenneth Lewis Roberts (1885 -1957) was an American writer of historical novels He worked first as a journalist, becoming nationally known for his work with the Saturday Evening Post from 1919 to 1928, and then as a popular novelist Born in Kennebunk, Maine, Roberts specialized in regionalist historical fiction, often writing about his native state and its terrain and also about other upper New England states and scenes For example, the main characters in Arundel and Rabble in Arms are from Kennebunkport (then called Arundel), the main character in Northwest Passage is from Kittery, Maine and has friends in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and the main character in Oliver Wiswell is from Milton, Massachusetts

While a reporter for the Saturday Evening Post in the early 1920s, Roberts wrote many magazine articles that urged strong legal restrictions on immigration from eastern and southern Europe and from Mexico, warning of the dangers of immigration from places other than northwestern Europe His opinions and descriptions of other nationalities and races are difficult to read today, and would not be considered acceptable This book collects some of his Post articles, and is offered not to promote such views, but only as an historical record of the time 356 pp.