1919. Tarkington was one of the most popular American novelist and dramatist of his time, winning two Pulitzer Prizes for his novels. The Magnificent Ambersons and Alice Adams. From Chapter I: The old man and the little boy, his grandson, sat together in the shade of the big walnut tree in the front yard, watching the Decoration Day Parade, as it passed up the long street; and when the last of the veterans was out of sight the grandfather murmured the words of the tune that came drifting back from the now distant band at the head of the procession. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.