1885-1957, American author, b. Kennebunk Maine, grad. Cornell, 1908. Well known as staff correspondent for the Saturday Evening Post and as an author of travel books, Roberts retired in 1928 to write the Chronicles of Arundel, a series of American historical novels; the series eventually included Arundel (1930), The Lively Lady (1931), Rabble in Arms (1933), and Captain Caution (1934). All Roberts's novels are colorful, exciting, and historically accurate. His later novels include Northwest Passage (1937), Oliver Wiswell (1940), Lydia Bailey (1946), and Boon Island (1956).37

Roberts worked as a journalist until 1917, when he began service as a captain in the Intelligence Section of the U.S. Army's Siberian Expeditionary Force. He was staff correspondent of the Saturday Evening Post from 1919 until 1928, when he devoted himself to writing fiction. Believing that the past is only poorly understood through historical accounts, Roberts published Arundel (1930), a fictional treatment of the Revolutionary War.38