In 1929, he published his first novel, ‘’Rome Haul‘’, a work about the Erie Canal. The novel was adapted for the 1934 play ‘’The Farmer Takes a Wife‘’ and the 1935 film of the same name.
A novelist has, if he chooses, a greater opportunity for the faithful presentation of a bygone time than an historian; for the historian is compelled to a presentation of cause and effect, and feels, as a rule, that he must present them through the lives and characters of ‘famous’ or ‘historical’ figures. My concern, however, has been with life as it was, as you or I, our mothers or wives, our brothers and husbands and uncles might have experienced it.
They Fought with What They Had: The Story of the Army Air Forces in the Southwest Pacific, 1941-1942 (1951)
The Musket and the Cross: The Struggle of France and England for North America (1968)
Tales My Father Never Told (1995)
* Novels Rome Haul, Drums Along the Mohawk, Chad Hanna, Young Ames and the short story collection Mostly Canallers were published as Armed Services Editions during WWII.
^‘’Newbery Medal Books: 1922–1955’’, eds. Bertha Mahony Miller, Elinor Whitney Field, Horn Book, 1955, LCCN55-13968, p. 210.
^Award List. “Lewis Carroll Shelf Award Winners”, Lewis Carroll Shelf Award Collection, Living Arts Corporation, Loveland, Colorado. Carlson, Laura, and Sean Creighton and Sheila Cunningham, eds. (1996). ‘’Literary laurels: a reader’s guide to award-winning children’s books’’. Hillyard. ISBN978-0-9647361-1-5. pp. 25–34.