Peter (novel)
{{short description|1908 novel by Francis Hopkinson Smith}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox book
| name = Peter
| title_orig =
| translator =
| image = File:Peter (novel).jpg
| caption = First edition
| author = Francis Hopkinson Smith
| illustrator = Arthur I. Keller
| cover_artist =
| country = United States
| language = English
| series =
| set_in = New York
| genre = Novel
| published = 1908 by Charles Scribner's Sons
| pub_date = August 29, 1908(29 August 1908). [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1908/08/29/104753346.pdf 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
| english_pub_date =
| media_type = Print (hardcover)
| isbn =
| oclc = 6209999
| dewey = 813.49
| congress = PZ3.S647
| preceded_by =
| followed_by =
}}
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.Hackett, Alice Payne. [https://books.google.com/books?id=cOI8AQAAIAAJ 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)) It sold in excess of 100,000 copies.(9 January 2009). [http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1909-01-09/ed-1/seq-8/ 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))
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."Mencken, Henry L. [https://books.google.com/books?id=n00wAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA2-PA158 The Good, The Bad and the Best Sellers], The Smart Set, pp. 358-59 (Vol. 26, No. 3, November 1908)Middleton, George. [https://books.google.com/books?id=qQG0Ym5BAGwC&pg=153 F. Hopkinson Smith's "Peter" (book review)], The Bookman (New York) (October 1908), p. 153[https://archive.org/details/peteranovelwhic02smitgoog A Guide to the New Books] The Bohemian Magazine, Vol. XV, No. 5 (November 1908), p. 714Doty, Madeline. [https://books.google.com/books?id=0YoxAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA563 Some Fiction], Pearson's Magazine (US), p. 563 (Vol. XX, No. 5, November 1908)Brigham, Johnson. [https://books.google.com/books?id=i-00AAAAMAAJ&pg=pg235 The Banker In Literature], pp. 235-38 (1910)(19 September 1908). [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1908/08/29/104753346.pdf By Hopkinson Smith (book review)], The New York Times(29 August 1908). [http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1908-08-29/ed-1/seq-5/ Recent Fiction by H. Hopkinson Smith and Others], New York Tribune[https://books.google.com/books?id=8bs4AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA580 Recent Fiction and the Critics], Current Literature, Vol. XLV, No. 5, p. 580-81 (November 1908)
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. The novel was never adapted to the stage or film.
References
{{reflist|2}}
External links
- {{Gutenberg book|no=4516}}
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=8V8XAAAAYAAJ 1912 edition] via Google Books.
{{Francis Hopkinson Smith}}