Frank Herron’s blog 100 Years Ago Today carries news items from century-old newspapers. The following bit ran in a recent edition, culled and adapted from an unidentified newspaper:

CAR WRECK FAILS TO BRING LITERARY CAREER TO A PREMATURE END: Word has reached the newspaper via London that theatrical manager George C. Tyler was involved in a serious automobile accident while driving from Rome to Florence in Italy. The car was “completely smashed” but somehow the passengers escaped unhurt. One of the passengers was author Booth Tarkington. He’s fairly famous in 1908, thanks to “The Gentleman from Indiana” and “The Two Vanrevels.” But greater fame awaits — with “Penrod” coming in 1914 and the Pulitzer Prize-winning “The Magnificent Ambersons” coming in 1918. Fortunately, he walked away from the crash.

As noted in our most recent news item, one of Tarkington’s primary thematic concerns was the effect of vehicular speed — and danger — on American culture.  In autobiographical writings, Tarkington writes comically of his first encounters with autos in Europe.  His close brush with death on the occasion in question undoubtedly influenced his thinking as well.

The central character of The Magnificent Ambersons, George Minafer, has this impression of his encounter with an automobile:

He was conscious of gigantic violence; of roaring and jolting and concussion; of choking clouds of dust, shot with lightning, about his head; he heard snapping sounds as loud as shots from a small pistol, and was stabbed by excruciating pains in his legs.