His Family

He was thinking of the town he had known. Not of old New York - he had heard of that from old, old men when he himself had still been young and had smiled at their garrulity. He was thinking of a young New York, the mighty throbbing city to which he had come long ago as a lad from the New Hampshire mountains. A place of turbulent thoroughfares, of shouting drivers, hurrying crowds, the crack of whips and the clatter of wheels; an uproarious, thrilling town of enterprise, adventure, youth; a city of pulsing energies, the center of a boundless land; a port of commerce with all the world, of stately ships with snowy sails; a fascinating pleasure town, with throngs of eager travellers hurrying from the ferryboats and rolling off in hansom cabs to the huge hotels on Madison Square.

The family's patriarch, widower Roger Gale, struggles to deal with the way his daughters and grandchildren respond to the changing society. "His Family" was praised by many critics at the time of its publication. The Oakland Tribune, in its review on May 27, 1917, said "in this story of Roger Gale's family, Ernest Poole has pictured remarkably well present-day Americans. It is significant, intellectual and stimulating - a story of today." 

The New York Times profiled the book in its review of "notable fiction" for 1917, calling it "a fine successor to "The Harbor" (Poole's first novel)."

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 labour 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.