Kenneth Roberts: Maine Writer, Historian
It wasn't until 1930 that Roberts' first historical novel, Arundel, was published. Arundel was a work of 250,000 words that Roberts completed in seven months. Arundel was the saga of Benedict Arnold's expedition into Canada during the American Revolutionary War. Though a fictionalized account of this campaign, Roberts' work was detailed and historically accurate. Historians took offense with Roberts' work, however, because he explained and defended the treason of General Benedict Arnold. It was Roberts' position that Arnold was just misunderstood, that he was not the villain history had depicted him to be.
The success of Arundel was followed by The Lively Lady (1931) and Rabble in Arms (1933). In 1934, Captain Caution was published. Also in this year, Roberts awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Dartmouth College. Roberts also received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Colby College in 1935 and was elected to membership in the National Institute of Arts and Letters.
Northwest Passage was published in 1937, followed by Trending into Maine, a Maine history, and March to Quebec in 1938. Oliver Wiswell (1940) and Lydia Bailey (1947) followed. In 1949, Roberts wrote his autobiography, I Wanted to Write, which details his life after graduating from Cornell and documents his writing career through 1947.
Roberts became interested in water "dowsing" (the ability to locate underground water by using a forked stick). His interest in water dowsing stemmed from needing water on his own property, as he lived too far from town to be on the town water lines. Several underground springs were located by "dowsers". One of these men, Henry Goss, was a federal game warden who lived in Biddeford, Maine. He had exceptional skill and talent at dowsing. Goss and Roberts became good friends, even forming a water dowsing company, "Water Unlimited".
As with many things in Roberts' life, Roberts' experience and position with regard to water dowsing made him once-again a controversial figure. Roberts supported Goss, helped document each successful attempt by Goss to locate underground water by using a dowsing rod. Though Roberts firmly believed in dowsing, many others took the position that if one was to dig deep enough in any spot, water would be located.
Roberts died in 1957, about a month before his last book on water dowsing was published. After his death, Goss continued his experiments in water dowsing, but their company "Water Unlimited" was dissolved.
Throughout his life, Roberts lived according
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