His Family

by Ernest Poole

In this 1918 Pulitzer Prize winning story, widower Roger Gale struggles to deal with the way his children and grandchildren respond to the changing society. His Family is the story of a sixty-year-old New York man who reflects on his life and the lives of his three daughters. The women represent three separate types - one maternal, the second devoted to social movements, and the third living a happy and carefree existence - and the father sees something of himself in each.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Historical Fiction, American, Literary Fiction, Novels, Literature

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1917

About the author

Ernest Poole graduated from Princeton University in 1902. He worked as a journalist and was active in promoting social reforms including the ending of child labor He was a correspondent for the Saturday Evening Post in Europe before and during World War I.

His novel The Harbor (1915) is the work for which he is known best.It is set largely among the proletariat of the industrial Brooklyn waterfront, and is sympathetic with socialism. It is considered one of the first American fictional works to present a positive opinion of trade unions.

Poole was the first recipient for the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1918 with his novel, His Family.
He died in Manhattan, New York on January 10, 1950.

Reviews

[Joshua Walcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm flabbergasted.

If you would have told me that I'd give this book a 4-star review when I was 50% through the book or even 75% of the way through the book, I would have laughed and told you that you must be thinking of some other book...not this one.

Ernest Poole must've lived through some serious family drama. Because man...this guy gets it. Never have I been so uncomfortable reading a book as I was when Roger's three daughters each tried to "fix" the other two with their ideas of how they should be living their lives.

Sometimes there are no easy answers.

Sometimes just surviving until tomorrow is enough.

And sometimes that isn't possible.

To all the people over the years that said this book shouldn't have won the Pulitzer, go eat a hat. This book led me by the hand through a tour of early 1900's New York, introduced me to the people of the times, ripped me up inside, put me back together, and gave me a kiss on the forehead.

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book won the first Pulitzer prize and was a great read. Roger Gale is the ageing father of three very different women: the motherly Emily, the independent Deborah, and the freewheeling Laura. He is a widower and in the autumn of his life becomes more involved in the lives and tragedies of his progeny in a New York where he would ride his horse in the streets (!). It is a moving tale with lots of fascinating insights into the pre-WWI, pre-skyscraper Manhattan with suffrage, racism, and poverty all weaved into the tale. I really enjoyed Roger's character and his capability to adapt and change as his society was evolving around him.

My rating of all the Pulitzer Winners: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

[Loretta · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm really baffled as to why and how this book won a Pulitzer Prize. I'd love to know what others books were up for nomination at the time! It was a nice story about a seemingly nice family. The description of old New York in its hey day was was quite enjoyable and certainly my cup of tea but I was truly bored and not really interested in any of the characters and I really wasn't entertained, at all.

[Petra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed Ernest Poole's story of New York City in changing times.
This story quietly shows the excitement and change as New York grapples with the issues of a large swell of immigration, of progress in business, of architectural change, of changes in attitude and then the war starts. It's an exciting and vibrant time in the city's history. All this happens in the background, yet the reader is fully aware of it all.

Roger contemplates immortality, both of a personal sort and of the soul. He wants to know his three daughters more fully and learn their needs and wants. He wants to ensure that they are happy and secure with their futures. He's a kind and generous man who loves his family above all else in life.

His family........well......the times were changing for women & society in 1017. Suffragettes were about, public schools were being discussed, immigration services were not available, women's roles in the home were changing, the city is vibrant with energy and fun. All fo this and more is reflected in Roger's family. As he considers immortality, he sees his family on three very distinct paths as each daughter forges forward with different priorities. He sees pros and cons in each path.

These changes, the decisions made to live one's life, the need to find unity & happiness, to find a balance as one progresses forward and most of all, the need to come together as a family both in the sense of a related family group and the family of society is the main focus of this quiet story.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

For everyone who thinks that women had no choices in 1918, here is a novel that begs to differ. In fact, the choices Roger Gale’s three daughters make drive him quite crazy in this, the first ever Pulitzer Prize winner. He finds himself widowed and trying to understand and really get to know his three grown daughters. They are very different people, one a dedicated homemaker, one a passionate career woman/reformer, and the third a vacuous party girl who thinks more of money and position than anything else. During the course of the novel, he does forge an understanding of his family, and also a knowledge that their lives are their own and not his to manage anymore.

One of the major themes addressed is whether we live on after death in another realm, or whether our living on is something we do through our children and their children. To live on solely through our progeny is a bit of a depressing idea for me. In truth, our memory only survives, on average, two generations. There is not a single person on the face of this earth who ever knew my great-grandmother, and while she lives on in me genetically, I do not find that that is enough. And what of those who die young or have no children? In the end, I think Roger Gale discovers that it isn’t an either/or proposition, and I agree with that.

While this book is a bit dated, it does open a door into the attitudes and thoughts of the middle class of the early 1900s. I found myself confronting a few stereotypes and misconceptions I have had about how men might have viewed their daughters in this time period. In the upper class, they were still items to be traded to keep money concentrated; in the poorer classes, they were drudges perhaps, enslaved to trying to keep families fed and afloat, but I found Roger’s attitudes toward his daughters were very much in line with what someone of the 1950s middle class might have felt.

I felt there was a bit of unnecessary repetition toward the end and that the novel could, in fact, have been wound up sooner than it was. However, that did not detract appreciably from the experience of reading it and I exited with something significant gained from the read. In my quest to read all the Pulitzer prize winners, I have discovered that this first winner was far from the least worthy.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Our local librarian rescued me from having to continue reading this book on kindle. She located an original hardcover published May, 1917. I love the feel of the thick cream colour paper pages.

His Family is a classic novel by Ernest Poole published in 1917 about the life of a New York widower and his three daughters in the 1910s. In 1918 it was the first book to receive the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel.

His Family tells the story of a middle class family in New York City in the 1910s. The family's patriarch, widower Roger Gale, struggles to deal with the way his daughters and grandchildren respond to the change in society. Each of his daughters responds in a distinctively different way to the circumstances of their lives.

Intergenerational conflict, racism, immigration, poverty, and immortality are some of the themes covered in this book. Over one hundred years later these themes are still pertinent to contemporary times.

A few quotes that I want to share:-
"[Roger] he could almost see her [his mother] sitting here.
"This is my memory living on in you, my son, though you do not know....For you were once a part of me. I moulded you, my little son. And as I have been to you, so you will be to your children. In their lives, too, we shall be there - silent and invisible, the dim strong figures of the past. For this is the power of families, this is the mystery of birth."

"You will live on in our children's lives."

"Queer,...how a man can neglect his children - as I have done, as I do still - when the one thing he wants most in life is to see each one of 'em happy."

This was a "Buddy Read" with three friends.

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thoughts soon.

[Melody · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gem of a book that covers topics that are timely today.

This story revolves around a man with 3 daughters: the homemaker, the career woman, and the party girl. He attempts to come to terms with who they are and the changes they represent in families, morality, teh workplace, and culture.

One theme that runs through this is immigration: the career woman is a school administrator in tenement neighborhoods of New York City before and during WWI. The discussion of immigration nearly 100 years ago mirrors cites themes we hear in discussions of immigration today.

We also hear today's burning issues echoed in the discussion of daughters: For the career woman, think Hillary Clinton and the flak she attracts by not being a stay-at-home mom. For the party girl, think Paris Hilton. And for the homemaker, think of the traditionalists and their criticism of the Clintons and Hiltons of the world.

Some of the writing is dated, but the story is insightful. Read it...

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

His Family is a 1917 novel set in the years just prior to and at the beginning of World War I. It tells the story of Roger Gale, a widower with three adult daughters who lives in New York City and runs a successful newspaper clipping service business. Roger has devoted his life to his business, but as he grows older, his work no longer seems as interesting or creative as it once had. He sees his daughters living their own lives and wonders “how a man can neglect his children—as I have done, as I still do—when the one thing he wants most in life is to see each one of ‘em happy.”

Roger sees a multitude of changes in the city all around him and wonders if he is too old and traditional to be relevant—to his daughters or to anyone else. People no longer seem to subscribe to the values and behaviors that Roger grew up with as a boy in New England. On the one hand, there are those who are engrossed in “their little games” of “feverish … getting and spending.” On the other hand, he sees “those millions of foreign tenement people, always shoving, shoving upward through the filth of their surroundings. They had already spoiled his neighborhood, they had flowed up like an ocean tide.” “How mixed the whole city was getting, he thought, how mad and strange, gone out of its mind, this city of his children’s lives crowding in upon him!”

Roger remembers what his wife Judith had told him: “You will live on in our children’s lives.” But is that all he can hope for at this point? Will he live on only as a more or less fondly remembered anachronism? He wants more. He wants to participate in his daughters’ lives now.

Roger’s three daughters are very different from one another. Edith, the eldest, is the most traditional, a wife with young children. Deborah, the middle daughter, and Laura, the youngest, are both unconventional, but in opposite ways. Deborah has devoted her life to teaching immigrant children in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. She has a beau but keeps putting off the idea of marriage. Laura is a free-spirited wild child who loves clothes, jewelry, parties, fast cars, and men. In each of the young women, Roger sees things to admire and things to regret. Throughout the book, his affections for each of them wax and wane in their turn. And they all love Roger in their own way, although he doesn’t always see it.

Through the story of Roger Gale and his family, Poole makes perceptive observations about the changes in the world as the Edwardian era ends and World War I approaches. As Roger discovers, the changes affect everyone. Poole’s portrayal of Deborah’s work among the underprivileged is especially potent, which is not surprising inasmuch as Poole had himself been a settlement house worker, a union press agent, and for a time, a member of the Socialist Party.

His Family won the first Pulitzer Prize for the Novel (now the Fiction prize) in 1918. The book holds up well more than a hundred years after its publication. It is a “quiet” domestic story set in a time quite different from today’s world. But the essential aspects of the family relationships that Poole describes are not so different. Likewise, although the specifics of the societal changes that Roger Gale had to contend with were of his time, today’s challenges are not so different. I enjoyed the book much more than I expected to, and I recommend it for its well-drawn characters, its interesting story, and its portrayal of the world at an inflection point in history.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Given the history and prestige of the Pulitzer Prize, it bears remembering that the award for fiction got off to a somewhat shaky start. Established in 1917, the Pulitzer committee failed to award a prize for fiction/novel that year (a bad habit it can't seem to break even as recently as 2012), and the first true winner in this category, snagging the prize in 1918, was a work entitled His Family by Ernest Poole, a nice enough book but lacking in anything particularly outstanding or memorable to recommend it.

Just whose family are we talking about here? That would be one Roger Gale, an early 20th century resident of NYC and a relatively well-to-do widower and father of three grown daughters. His Family follows the last few years of Roger's life and the changes that take place within "his family" as well as changes in the world at large that touch the lives of Roger and his daughters. At the outset, Poole makes little effort to develop the daughters beyond flat, almost-cliched character types. The oldest daughter, Edith, is the traditional mother raising 5 kids. The middle daughter Deborah is the do-gooder who is too busy saving the world (or in this case NYC's early 20th century immigrant caste) to be bothered with the mundane affairs of marriage or family. Laura, Roger's youngest daughter, is the self-absorbed social climber who increasingly flaunts her liberal (for her day) ideas. Roger, the dependable hub of the family wheel, watches with dismay as his daughters are flung further and further apart from him and from each other, tossed about by the inexorable and disquieting changes of the age. As crises of varying degrees present themselves, Roger attempts to reassure himself with the mantra of his late wife, "you will live on in the lives of your children". On the contrary, Roger gradually realizes (although he has probably suspected all along) that in the big picture, he exerts about as much influence over the affairs of his daughters as he does over the turbulent world outside the four walls of his home. He comes to terms with this at about the same time he learns that his physical life is surely ebbing away. Ironically, as his life draws to an end, he wields the most influence over his family when he happily relinquishes responsibility for their well-being.

At the risk of reading something into the work that might not be there, I wonder if Poole unintentionally sheds light on an aspect of the sexism of that time, through one of the minor characters. If Roger finds any solace in the midst of the turmoil in his home, he finds it in a young man who is not part of "his family", the cripple Johnny Geer. In spite of his physical limitations, Johnny is everything that Roger's daughters are not: content with his life, devoid of drama, and just plain helpful to Roger. Johnny was like the son that Roger never had, and in the writing of his character, I thought Poole was making this subtle point: daughters and their affairs will drain you in a way that sons won't. This message is also reinforced, to a lesser degree, through Roger's interactions with his grandson George. Again, I may be unfairly assigning this particular intent to Poole's writing, but I find it curious that Roger's family is made up entirely of three very different daughters, each of whom manage to consume their father with more than their fair share of angst.

From the perspective of nearly 100 years later, it's easy to dismiss the first Pulitzer fiction winner as mostly forgettable. Enduring or not, the selection of any title for the Pulitzer is a history lesson in itself and therefore valuable beyond simply being an entry in the Pulitzer ledger. I suspect that the selection of Poole's book was a reflection of some of the anxieties of the age, if not Poole's own. Women's Suffrage would finally be realized in a few years, and women were no longer resigned to merely fill Edith's role, as noble and important as it was. Men, especially fathers, weren't quite so sure what to make of it all, and we've been losing sleep over our daughters ever since.

[robin friedman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The First Pulitzer

The prolific writer, journalist and social reformer Ernest Poole (1880 – 1950) deserves to be remembered as the first recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel. Poole’s 1918 award foreshadows both the strengths and weaknesses of the Pulitzer Prize, which in 1948 was renamed the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

On the one hand, many critics argued from the outset that “His Family” did not deserve the Pulitzer Prize but was instead a stand-in for Poole’s earlier novel, “The Harbor” (1915), a sharply-written story of social protest and the struggle for unionization. Indeed, “The Harbor” remains in print while “His Family” is available only in offprint editions. On the other hand, “His Family” is a distinctly American novel which offers a careful reflective portrayal of American life and its promise during a pivotal time. By offering an ultimately optimistic vision of American life, “His Family” met a basic purpose of the Pulitzer Prize which many subsequent recipients would share. Poole’s “Our Family” merits consideration in its own right rather than as an alleged stand-in for an earlier book.

Set primarily in New York City with scenes as well in rural New Hampshire during 1913 --1916, “His Family” is both a complex novel of a changing America and a character study. The book tells the story of an aging businessman, Roger Gale, as he struggles to come to terms with changes in American culture that are mirrored in his own family. The book has something of the feel of a coming of age novel. Poole suggests that most adults remain virtual children throughout their lives and find wisdom, if at all, only with age, as undoubtedly was the case with the life of his protagonist.

Gale’s “family” consists of three daughters, ranging in age from their late 20’s to mid-30’s. His wife Judith had died at 39 sixteen years before the story begins, leaving Gale to raise his daughters alone through their adolescent years. Just before her death, Judith had enjoined her husband to “live on in our children’s lives” to prepare with faith for a reunion of the family in an afterlife. But Judith’s death leaves Gale broken and alone and with a loss of any religious faith whatsoever. He throws himself into his business which, with some rough moments, becomes a success. Gale lives in a large old house which he inherited from his wife and which was the home of his daughters. The house is fast becoming an anachronism in an increasingly cluttered New York City. Poole frequently calls Gale an “idealist”. Gale broods a great deal. He feels guilty that he does not know his daughters well and was not sufficiently involved in their upbringing.

Gale’s three daughters are types as well as individuals who show three different ways of life for women in a changing American culture. Gales’ relationship with his middle daughter, Deborah, in her early 30’s is the focus of the story. Deborah lives with her father in the old family home. She is unmarried and has been working since her early 20’s as a teacher in New York City’s tenement schools. Deborah has risen to become a principal and a supervisor of many schools and has become famous in the city for her devotion to bettering the condition of poor struggling immigrants, adults as well as children. Deborah is also a suffragette and becomes increasingly active in social movements as the economy enters a downturn after the beginning of WW I. To get closer to Deborah, Gale accompanies her through her daily rounds and becomes increasingly attuned to the lives of the downtrodden, the poor, and the ill. Poole describes the lives of the city’s growing underclass with compassion and power. With his growing sympathy for his daughter’s endeavors, Gale remains concerned about her single state. For some years, a physician, Allan Baird, has courted Deborah and has abandoned a lucrative medical practice for the well to do to assist in Deborah’s work for the poor. Fearing Deborah will become old and alone and miss her chance for intimacy and happiness, Gale wants her to marry the longsuffering Baird.

Gale’s oldest daughter, Edith, is married to a successful workaholic attorney, Bruce, and has five children. Edith has traditional values along the lines of Judith’s. She is devoted to her children and his little use for Deborah, her career, and her feminism. Edith spends lavishly on her children until Bruce dies in a freak auto accident. She and her children move in with Gale and Deborah, and family tensions abound.

The youngest daughter Laura exemplifies the changing culture of the age in a way different from Deborah. Laura is free-spirited and sexually liberated. She impulsively marries a successful if rakish young man and travels with him to Europe at the outset of the War. The marriage soon flounders as both Laura and her husband have affairs. When Laura moves back home alone, the family conflicts become intolerable. Deborah works to make the best of the situation and to spare her father, to the extent possible. Laura leaves the home after a bitter quarrel with Edith. She runs off with her paramour even before her divorce and returns to Europe. Laura has a strained reconciliation with Gale at the end of his life.

Gale struggles to understand and become close to his daughters and to overcome his own grief and nostalgia. Although he fails nearly as often as he succeeds, Gale’s finest moment comes when he convinces Deborah of the value of Baird’s love and of a committed sexual and family life. He persuades his daughter that she can continue with her passion for social uplift and career while having an intimate life of her own. Gale comes down with a fatal illness, but he lives to see Deborah married and through a difficult nearly fatal pregnancy. With his death, Gale comes to understand his own life, “his family” of daughters and their children, and the broader “family” of humanity which has been the focus of Deborah’s life. He comes to interpret in his own way his wife’s injunction to “live on in our children’s lives.” Near the end of his life, Gale adopts as his own a motto carved over the door of one of Deborah’s schools: “Humanity is still a child. Our parents are all people who have lived upon the earth—our children, all who are to come. And the dawn at last is breaking. The great day has just begun.”

Poole’s novel includes many evocative passages of a dynamic, changing New York City that reminded me of a much later Pulitzer Prize winner, “Martin Dressler” by Steven Millhauser that is set about fifteen years earlier than “Our Family”. The book is slow moving and ponderous in places and tends toward didacticism. The portions of the book describing Gale’s relationship with a severely injured young man named John whom he treats as a son are over-sentimentalized. “His Family” still remains thoughtful, serious, and readable. The book effectively portrays social change and its impact on individual lives. In its focus on American life and its potential, “His Family” was a worthy first recipient of the Pulitzer Prize. The book deserves a new, accessible edition.

Robin Friedman

[Brian E Reynolds · Rating 4 out of 5]

This a story of a 59-year-old widower and his 3 daughters in 1914 Manhattan as the Great War is beginning. The father is the center of the story, which consists of interactions with his daughters, who all live with him at some point in the story. The daughters are all different; the eldest, a traditional mother focused on her own children; the middle, a social activist in charge of a group of schools for ‘her family’ of the local tenement children; and the youngest, a childless free-spending socialite who would fit perfectly in the upcoming Jazz Age. The title identifies the novel's theme: how one lives on through one’s family and what that family is.
The book was interesting enough that I always found myself reading more than I planned to read. While it did get a bit sentimental at times, especially toward the end when it also bogged down a bit, that was not the general tone of the novel. The fact that Poole was a journalist and social activist likely kept it from being overly sentimental. However, despite Poole’s socialist views, the book does not evangelize, either for social change or for traditional family values. Overall, it was a fairly objective and interesting portrayal of the events in an upper middle-class family of the time.
This book is the winner of the first Pulitzer Prize for the Novel. With these fairly unrenowned Pulitzer winners, I enter expecting a slightly sluggish but not overly difficult 3 star read, presuming that they’d be better known if they were really any good. Thus, I was pleasantly surprised that I found this book so engaging. The fact that I can identify with the main character’s life status may have helped hold my interest a bit too.
The writing was clear, the characterization well-done and the themes and portrayed events were interesting. I thought it a solid 4 star read.

[Irene · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the early 20th century, US society was undergoing great change. From the waves of new immigrants to the growing prosperity of many Americans, from shifting attitudes toward family and sex to the transformative women’s movement, from the specter of the First World War to the rise of a social reform movement, the US was living through a time of rapid alterations. For some, the possibilities were freeing, for others the shifting ground was terrifying. In this family drama of a middle aged widower and his 3 adult daughters, the family dynamics mirror the larger society. When I read award winning books penned a century or more ago, I am confronted by the change in literary taste. Like many novels of this era, I found it to be wordy and the philosophizing rather heavy handed. But I appreciated how Poole captured the dreams and fears of each character and found both value and caution in the preserving of what one knows and embrace of what the future could be. 3.5 stars

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

His Family is a novel by Ernest Poole published in 1917. It received the first Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1918. I wonder how many places and how many times now that I've read that His Family won the first Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1918. I knew that much longer than I knew what the book was about, other than it was about a man and his family. 1917 is the year my dad was born, that just popped into my head thinking of this book and it's prize. Ernest Cook Poole, the author of our book was older than my dad because he was born long before he wrote this book, in January of 1880. He was an American journalist, novelist, and playwright. I read this about him:

Poole is best remembered for his sympathetic first-hand reportage of revolutionary Russia during and immediately after the Revolution of 1905 and Revolution of 1917 and as a popular writer of proletarian-tinged fiction during the era of World War I and the 1920s.

If he's best remembered for his sympathetic reporting of the Russian revolution, it's not me remembering him for it, I had no idea he was there for it all. As for him being a proletarian-tinged writer, I had to look that one up. Looking up the word proletarian and getting "a member of the proletariat" as a definition is annoying and I refuse to look any further, I'm annoyed.

Published in 1915, Poole's The Harbor was well received by critics and the reading public. I didn't find that one yet. He followed the book up with His Family. When it received it's Pulitzer Prize, some thought it was really awarded to Poole for his previous effort, The Harbor, which is why I have to read that book now. But on to the book I did read, His Family.

I was right, it was about a man and his family. His three daughters, and their children, and a few husbands thrown in there too. There really aren't very many people in the book who I didn't just mention. If you aren't related to one of these people you probably didn't make it into the story.

Our man, the family's patriarch, is widower Roger Gale:

Roger Gale was a rugged heavy man not quite sixty years of age. His broad, massive features were already deeply furrowed, and there were two big flecks of white in his close-curling, grayish hair. He lived in a narrow red brick house down on the lower west side of the town, in a neighborhood swiftly changing. His wife was dead. He had no sons, but three grown daughters, of whom the oldest, Edith, had been married many years. Laura and Deborah lived at home, but they were both out this evening.

Roger is a New York businessman owner of a media monitoring service, which made almost no sense to me what they were doing. As far as I could tell he had a whole bunch of people looking through every single newspaper they can get and cutting stories out of them that someone may want to buy and they do. I don't get it, but I didn't have to, he's not at the office all that often anyway.

He had ventured into the business world, clerking now at this, now at that, and always looking about him for some big opportunity. It had come and he had seized it, despite the warnings of his friends. What a wild adventure it had been a bureau of news clippings, a business new and unheard of but he had been sure that here was growth, he had worked at it day and night, and the business widening fast had revealed long ramifications which went winding and stretching away into every phase of American life. And this life was like a forest, boundless and impenetrable, up-springing, intertwining. How much could he ever know of it all?

When his wife was dying he promised to stay close to their three daughters, and keep them close to each other, which would have made life much more peaceful if he hadn't agreed to it. There are very few people more different and less likely to want to be anywhere near each other than his daughters. We have Edith:

Edith had four children, and was soon to have another. A small demure woman of thirty-five, with light soft hair and clear blue eyes and limbs softly rounded, the contour of her features was full with approaching maternity, but there was a decided firmness in the lines about her little mouth.

Edith thinks a lot about her home, her husband, and especially her children. In fact that is the only thing she ever thinks about, everything she says or does has something to do with them.

Then there is Deborah, she is the middle daughter who is nothing like the oldest daughter. She doesn't talk about her husband and children because she has neither. She works, and works, and works. She works at a school, and the children at her school are poor children, so she works constantly agitating for reforms and financial support to help the families living in the tenements.

"I was thinking of hungry people—millions of them, now, this minute—not only here but in so many places—concerts, movies, libraries. Hungry, oh, for everything—life, its beauty, all it means. And I was thinking this is youth—no matter how old they happen to be—and that to feed it we have schools. I was thinking how little we've done as yet, and of all that we're so sure to do in the many, many years ahead. Do you see what I mean?" she squeezed his hand.

"Welcome back to school," she said, "back into the hungry army of youth!... Sh-h-h!"

She doesn't just have four children or five children, she has four hundred. She doesn't understand why her sister is only interested in her own family and not all the suffering there is all around them. Edith doesn't understand why Deborah doesn't want her own family to take care of, and later, when Edith is struggling to take care of her family, she doesn't understand why Deborah wouldn't give money to her nieces and nephews instead of people she doesn't even know. And neither one of them can understand the youngest daughter, Laura. Laura doesn't want children, Laura doesn't want to save the poor families around her, but still Laura wants money just as much as the rest of them, only in her case she wants it for Laura. Laura surprises the family by marrying Hal Sloan, a young successful businessman. They can afford a honeymoon trip to Europe, they can afford limousines, and furs and so many dresses Laura could change three times a day, and rings and, you get the idea.

And Deborah, well finally she is going to get married, then she isn't, then she is, then....well she has all her tenement people to take care of. So does her perhaps/perhaps not husband, he's a doctor down there. Then the war comes and no one has money anymore, well no one but Laura and even she may find that money may not be everything, then again she may not. So does Roger manage to do what he promised his wife? Does he manage to hold this group of people together? Read the book, I liked it a lot. I'm not sure if it was good enough to win a prize, but it was good. Happy reading.

[Carmel Hanes · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book I'd not have known about had it not been chosen as a buddy read. Published in the early 1900's, it was the first book chosen for a Pulitzer Prize, which was an intriguing prospect. I did wonder what appealed to readers far before my time, and this offered an interesting glimpse (at least in a survey of one--no idea if it is typical for the era).

The story centers on an aging widower with three daughters, each of whom represents a component of the society: the oldest, who has spent her adult life somewhat myopically being mother to several children; the youngest who is portrayed as self-indulgent, carefree and somewhat frivolous; and the middle daughter who throws herself into teaching, social causes and working with the poor and unfortunate. This trio of diverse souls occasionally clash and clang as they carve out their roles in the family and larger world. Pinging between them is the father, feeling his age and assessing his life, worth, example, and contributions to his daughters and that same larger world. He wonders what many of us wonder...what are we leaving behind of ourselves.

For a novel 100 years old, it was surprisingly similar to today's culture and families. We still have socioeconomic divisions that impact quality of life, we still have those who help others and those who are oblivious or view them as "less than", we still have that universal tendency to assess our lives as we feel them reaching thin air, and we still struggle to navigate family relationships when our values and desires diverge or crisis occurs. What I appreciated most about the story was the evolution the father experienced through the influence of the middle daughter, proving that change can happen when eyes and hearts are exposed to new things.

I had a hard time enjoying the prose employed by this author, which is so different from what I am used to, but the content of the story kept me interested to see where things would go.

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a gentle tale. Not a page turner, no major excitement. Just a beautifully written story of a loving family during the early years of the 20th century in New York City. The story is told through the eyes of 60 year old widow Roger Gale, of his three grown daughters – their joys and tribulations. Part of the charm of this book is that it was written in 1917, and you get a feel of that time in the ever growing city. Many of the themes though are timeless and are as current as today. I believe it was fully worthy of having won the first Pulitzer Prize award. For loving fathers everywhere, cheers to His Family.

[Elizabeth A.G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the 1918 Pulitzer Prize for the Novel winner, "His Family" by Ernest Poole is a wonderful, quiet, engaging story of the Gayle family in early 20th century New York involving a widower father, Roger Gayle, and his three grown daughters, Edith, Deborah, and Laura. Family relationships; how unalike siblings can be; participation or lack thereof in the development and care of one's children; the experience of family members leaving the nest & creating their own lives; concerns with death and the legacy we leave our children -- ("You will live on in our childrens' lives" is a statement the deceased wife used to repeat and which Roger Gayle quotes several time in the story.) -- the rapid changes in society with the rapid growth of New York, the suffering of the poor living in the tenements, the effects of WWI on lives and the economy; and the expanding roles and careers of women outside of the family are all themes touched upon and make this story seem very relevant today. The book is beautifully written with good characterization. I found myself drawn into and caring about how their lives will turn out. A well-deserved Pulitzer for a novel that has sadly been over looked.

[Erika · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book to be both really interesting and really problematic.
On the plus side, it’s a fascinating look at New York during a transformative time in history. The characters’ opinions about women, poverty, education, sex and technology is like a snapshot of the era, so much so that I think this novel would be great as required reading for a college class on American history. On the minus side, it has some major structural problems and I agree with other reviewers who said the themes are hammered on again and again.
Still, I’m glad I read it. I learned a lot and was never bored.

[Albert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ernest Poole won the first Pulitzer Prize for His Family in 1918. In the novel it is 1914 and Roger Gale is almost 60. He is a widower with three daughters. The daughters are very different from one another, so different that you feel the author is making a point with the contrast. Edith, the oldest, is completely devoted to her family, her husband and raising her children in a way that gives them the best possible start in life. Deborah, the middle daughter, started as a teacher but has become an innovative principal who views all of her students as her family. She has risen to a very public role within the city and has a vision of where she wants to take the school system. She struggles as to whether she can balance her career with a marriage and her own children. Laura, the youngest, is the prettiest and the most social. She gets married in what everyone else considers a very cavalier manner. She wants no children and is unapologetic that she wants to enjoy life and refuses to live by the standards of others.

Roger Gale is continually beset by problems and worries concerning his daughters, and the eruption of war in Europe creates problems for his business. Roger’s biggest worry is that he was an absent father for many years following his wife’s death, and he fears he does not know and may never get to know his daughters. He worries he is running out of time. The story was intriguing, and it provided significant insight into family life and relationships in the 1910 to 1918 timeframe in the US. I was surprised by some of the prejudices that Roger Gale displayed, but after thinking about them in the context the novel presented, I found them to be likely and realistic. Roger has lost his faith in God and struggles throughout the novel to understand what he believes will or will not come after death. Will he be represented only by the future generations of his family or is there something more. Unfortunately, the way in which Ernest Poole voiced these questions through Roger Gale and his children was too obvious; there was no subtlety. And the repetition that Poole used to get the messages across was too much. So good grades for what he was trying to accomplish; low marks for technique.

[Jean Carlton · Rating 3 out of 5]

3-
The repetitive and obvious theme of 'life goes on' (and on and on)became a bit boring to me at first but it pulled me in as I found passages to which I could relate as a parent. Roger, aging patriarch, is looking back on his life after the death of his wife. Only then does he get to know his adult daughters. Major themes which cross all generations are the uniqueness of each of his children, the tendency of parents to meddle in their lives and decisions (all for their own good, of course!), the idea (hope) that we parents will 'live on in them' even after we are gone, that our role may be to teach and model behavior for them but that they also teach US, that parents may have 'favorites' but that can change with the wind, that parents sometimes have feelings that are not acceptable...they don't really like their children all the time. Ordinary prose interspersed with exceptional passages often enough to keep interest...especially the descriptive and poignant ending.
I find it interesting that only upon the death of his wife was he, the father, awakened to the lives of his children....it had been 'forced upon him' and it ultimately renewed his soul. Still true today, though I believe less so, is the distant father when it comes to interactions with the children.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

His Family won the Pulitzer Prize in 1918. This is because there were only three books published that year in the entire world.

There’s a lot of heart in the novel, and it means well...it’s just laughably bad at points. Roger is supposed to be an old-fashioned father who doesn’t understand this crazy new world. He’s at his wit’s end with his daughters not conforming to societal standards. Who are these heathens not having 10 kids by the time they're 30?!?! He gruffs, growls and grunts his way through the entire book. Yet he can’t stay mad for more than two pages at a time. At most.

Seriously, Roger gets pissed off, one of his daughters will laugh at his cantankerous ways and his heart is immediately melted. Repeat for 400 pages.

Random thoughts: the last two chapters were pretty good. The “Cripple” is made to be an important character, yet he’s vastly undercooked and disappears for many chapters at a time. Does Ernest Poole know what Roger does for a living? Last of all...Deborah’s family!

[Chrissie]

The first Pulitzer--it has to be tried. To see NYC back in the early 1900s attracts me too.

[Khris Sellin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction

This book was written in 1917, and yes, it shows its age in some respects, but also surprisingly progressive. The story of a widower and his relationship with his three daughters. They are each wildly different individuals, and as he tries to nurture them and make them see that marriage and children are they key to all happiness, they end up teaching him that life has so much more to offer. In the end, it's a simple story about a family living in NYC, with all the angst and the joy it brings.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best part of “His Family” is the fact that it was written in 1917 and doesn’t feel like it. Poole’s ideas of inheritance and continuance as they rest don’t exactly last the passing of time, but are best understood as a necessary ellipsis to future refinement. In effect, his passages of commas and bird’s eye-imagery frustrate and dull quickly, but the meaning and intention is admirable enough to forgive them. Poole doesn’t have the artistic tools to paint what’s in his head, and yet, much like Roger lives on in the lives of his family, “His Family” lives on in the next 100 years of American Novels.

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This engaging and endearing book, the winner of the first Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (in 1918), seems unfortunately to have slipped into the shadows. It is both gentle and powerful, a gripping story of the final couple of years in the life of Roger Gale -- his memories of and hopes for His Family.

Roger is a thoughtful and sensitive man, the father of three daughters. Illness had taken his wife Judith at a young age and Roger became a kind and conscientious single parent to three young daughters -- no mean task, I dare say, in New York City in the early 1900s. In the story, they are adults now and Roger spends a good deal of time pondering their differences, which focus mostly on their attitudes to motherhood. Edith, the eldest and the mother of five, is entirely focused on the needs of her own children and has even forsaken her adult friendships in favour of her role as a mother. Deborah, the principal of a school in the tenement district, is both mother and social worker to her "family" of 3000 children and their parents and community. Laura, the youngest, enjoys (with her husband, a man of "independent means") a carefree and luxurious lifestyle -- free of children.

Roger struggles to understand and accept the choices of each of his daughters. I really admire him for his open-mindedness to "modern" attitudes and his ability to examine himself and his own opinions honestly. While he does not approve entirely of the choices of any of his daughters, he is able to recognize aspects of himself in their strengths and weaknesses and to accept each of them "warts and all" -- thereby accepting his own strengths and weaknesses also.

Like most people who are nearing the end of life, Roger frequently is visited by memories of years gone by. Through these forays into the past, the reader learns about Roger's childhood on a farm in the mountains of New Hampshire; his hunger for an exciting life; his carefree days as a young man in New York City; the early years of marriage; the struggle to keep his business afloat and provide for the needs of his children. But these memories also take the story into the future. His beloved home in the city, which he shared for such a short time with Judith, eventually expands to include Johnny Geer (one of Deborah's special "children") and then Deborah and her husband and baby. Even as Roger recalls lovingly the mountain farm of his childhood, it also becomes the beloved home of Edith and her children. And even the rebellious Laura finds her way back into Roger's family.

The First World War breaks out about halfway through the story and this event, along with some personal crises, challenges Roger and his family. As they wrestle with these issues, relationships shift and change and Roger observes that his "family" is also changing. And finally, as he lies on his deathbed,

. . . with a breathless awe he knew that all the people who had ever lived on earth were before him in the void to which he himself was drifting: people of all nations, of countless generations reaching back and back and back to the beginnings of mankind: the mightiest family of all . . .

Until I perused the list of Pulitzer winners for a "prize-winners" challenge, I had never heard of Ernest Poole. Biographical information about him is very scarce although (like some other more famous authors of the time) he was an American journalist in Europe before and during World War One. He was apparently a radical thinker for his time, being strongly identified with socialism and sympathetic to the cause of the labour unions and, it seems, to the women's movement. Ernest Poole was a profound thinker, a man with an uplifting vision of what it means to be a part of creation, an author who should not be forgotten. If you read this book, you will not regret it.

[Pclaiborn08 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although Poole seems to have good intentions with this story of an aging widower/father struggling to regain his foothold in the lives of his three adult daughters. Threads of truth concerning family dynamics as well as life truths can be found throughout the book, but are primarily overshadowed by aggressive stereotyping, providing for characters with limited growth and no ability to connect with the reader, as well as untiring repetition which eventually tires the reader.

[Alice Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book in my quest to read every Pulitzer Prize winner (fiction) in order over the next year. I’d never heard of this book before, but I can see why it won the award. The Pulitzer, in its inception particularly, was meant to embody a deep sense of Americana, and to portray “the highest standards of American life and manhood.”
“His Family” is an intense look at motherhood and family in early 20th century New York City. It was a gritty and moving story, often bringing me to tears (which is actually quite rare for me), and it was deeply relatable to the 21st century, despite being over a hundred years old. I would never have picked it up if I weren’t on this journey, but I’m very glad I did. 4.5 stars

“For here was motherhood of the genuine kind, not orating in Cooper Union in the name of every child in New York, but crooning low and tenderly, soothing one little child to sleep, one of the five she herself had borne, in agony, and without complaint.”

[Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're looking for a good "book group book", His Family is a good choice. Set in 1913-1916 New York City, it tells the tale of Roger Gale, a 16 year widower, and his three daughters. Edith, 36, married with 4 children, and soon to be 5, has an insular view of her family. She focuses all her attention on maximizing the health, comfort and security of her family, at the expense of not experiencing the outside world. Deborah, 29, is single and a highly motivated principal of a large public school in NYC. Her students are largely from the burgeoning tenement class. She is a progressive suffragette, and a subscriber to modern educational theories. Her devotion to her vocation makes the possibility of a family very troublesome. Youngest daughter Laura, 26, is artistic, likes the theater, and is a modern, free and open-minded spirit. Unlike her deceased mother, father, and sisters, she is more aware and open about female sexuality. She marries into a relationship that her father can only call a ménage.

Roger swore on his wife Judith's deathbed to "stay close to his family", but he has not kept his promise. He is spiritually bankrupt, and no longer believes in a life after death. A severe financial jolt awakens him and he starts to see a spiritual re-growth. His spirits are uplifted by his youngest daughter, and his grandchildren. We see how his concept of family evolves with time and shifting circumstances. Not only the depth of familial relations are explored but also their breadth. He is troubled by the changes he sees taking place in the city because of the "huddled masses", the rise of tenements, and creeping socialism. He has been able to provide a comfortable upper middle class environment for his family through his self-created newspaper "clipping service". The start of the World War creates some sudden changes to the status quo that have some far-reaching consequences for his family.

An on again, off again courtship relationship involving his daughter Deborah, consumes much of his waking moments. Dramatic changes in Edith's family status trouble Roger even more. Laura is not without marriage problems as well. Health concerns throw a monkey wrench into family functioning. Changing family financial status brings the family to the point of social and psychological collapse.

The family explores hidden resources in order to survive. Roger's ring collection figures prominently and we learn its significance in his life. Assets that they had taken for granted for years are suddenly discovered and grant the family new hope. We see an evolution of the role of the family for Roger as he deals with maintaining the peace amongst the various family members, which becomes very challenging and body weakening. Roger is constantly reminded how Judith always said, "We live through our children."

Looking forward to my next book group discussion, I am optimistic that this will be one of our best discussions over the last 12 years.

[Bong · Rating 4 out of 5]

For The Loving Father


This is my first Pulitzer novel to read because, I challenged myself to read Pulitzer novels since last year I invested my time reading Young Adults because I'm still young and YA is my genre . I promised myself that every time I read a book I'll try to write a review on it hoping I can do this! URGH!

His Family by Ernest Poole was the first Pulitzer winner for fiction (1918). The story revolved around Roger Gale the main protagonist in the story. He had three daughters named Edith, Deborah, and Laura. His wife died a few years after they had their youngest daughter. As the story moved from his daughter's life, he also learned new things in life in which he can reflect this in his own life. A father who always wanted the best for his children, who wanted nothing but a better life. That's the role of a father.


"You will live in our children's lives" this is the last words from Judith (Roger's wife) before she died. These were the words Roger tried to do. To make his full life looking for his daughters. But how can a father guide his daughters with different personalities? Reading this novel made me think of my future, how will I handle my own children when it comes? Will I be strict with them or not? How will I live in their lives? Okay! Seriously! I'm afraid now. LOL


What will you do if your youngest daughter will marry a man you don't like? What should you do? How will you react? These simple things are hard to give justifications because of the feelings involved here. While reading this novel, I wonder if what will you choose? Your instinct or other's happiness? This is hard for a father to do what's right for you but not with others.


His Family is not only a family drama but realizing what is happening outside your home. I am a future teacher and by analyzing Deborah's character (because she's a teacher) I realize how a teacher touches other children's lives. Some may say that being a teacher is a noble profession, yet, teaching is not a job, it's beyond what is inside the classroom. Because it was first World War (WWI) we can visualize what is happening in New York - homeless children, starving people, malnutrition, prostitution and many more. Imagine a teacher coping with different problems by her students. Your students are considered as your family.


If you are a father just always remember, You Will Live in your Childern's Lives .

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

His Family, the first Pulitzer Prize winning novel, is a drama that explores the trials and challenges of family life against the backdrop of the rapidly changing world of the early 20th century. Set in New York in 1914, Roger Gale is widower with three grown daughters, who each possess traits he sees in himself. As he emerges from the grief and depression of losing his wife, he turns to his daughters, remembering his wife’s advice that “you will live on in our children’s lives.” He comes to learn that this not merely as a legacy once he himself is gone, but a way for him to flourish in his remaining days.

Each of his daughters have families of their own, which symbolize the transitional era in which they live. Edith has a traditional family and can’t look beyond her own children’s well being. Deborah’s “family” numbers in the thousands, as she is a school principal in the impoverished tenement neighborhoods and champions social reform. In this way she is the “modern woman”, the opposite of Edith’s old fashioned ways. And young Laura, who cares about nothing but her own pleasure, embraces the family she’s found in the elite social circles of New York. Roger’s changing opinion of his daughters through the course of the book is fascinating.

The basic themes of evolving generations, the role of women in society, the moral responsibility of humans to one another and the transition of old fashioned living to the complexity of modern urban life are explored. Most of the drama plays out in Roger’s home, where he raised his family, and where his daughters now occasionally live to cultivate their own. I would have liked more descriptions of urban New York and life in the 1910s, but having the home as the nucleus of the story is really the main point.

The book is written in a style that feels corny at times, but there are some very moving passages, and some of the messages hold true today as well as they did 90 years ago. It’s well worth reading.