The Court of Boyville was published by Doubleday & McClure in 1899. The book collects stories about the world of boys in a small Kansas town — their games, their conflicts, their social hierarchies, their encounters with the adult world. White observes this world with the affectionate precision of someone who remembers it vividly and understands that the society of boys is as complex and rule-governed as any adult community.
The stories are set in a recognizable Emporia — White’s Kansas town made fictional — and the boys are drawn from observation rather than sentimentality. They are capable of cruelty, loyalty, courage, and cowardice; they form alliances and make enemies; they test themselves against each other and against the adult world. White writes about them with humor but without condescension — he takes their concerns seriously because he remembers that they were serious.
The book established White’s reputation as a fiction writer (distinct from his fame as an editorialist) and demonstrated his gift for the local-color story — the detailed rendering of a specific American community and its inhabitants that was the dominant mode of American short fiction in the 1890s and 1900s.
Collecting The Court of Boyville
First edition (Doubleday & McClure, New York, 1899): Cloth with illustrations.
Market values:
- First edition, fine: $40–$100
- Very good: $15–$40