Exeter Talk Examines Bad Boy Books -- Parents who try to control their wild sons are going against Nature. The “human boy” is born to trouble, according to four early Seacoast NH authors. Their writing launched a new literary genre starting in the 1860s that culminated in the creation of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn by author Mark Twain. But it all started in New Hampshire, according to local historian J. Dennis Robinson who will track the origins of the “bad boy books” on April 1.

Robinson will deliver his slide lecture “Lively Boys! Lively Boys!” at the Exeter Historical Society on April 1 at 7pm on Maine Street. Robinson is editor of the popular web site SeacoastNH.com and author of two best-selling books on the history of Strawbery Banke Museum and Wentworth by the Sea hotel. His talk features the ground-breaking work of author Thomas Bailey Aldrich, BP Shilaber, James T Fields and Exeter’s own Judge Henry A. Shute.

“A man is no more responsible for his actions as a boy,” Robinson says of this early genre, “than the butterfly is for the actions of the caterpillar.”

The little-known 19th century “Theory of The Human Boy" defined a young male as a completely separate creature, totally distinct from childhood and adulthood. Robinson explores this literary phenomenon in his upcoming presentation.

"Boys are alien creatures according to this theory," Robinson says. “In this view, there was no such thing as a juvenile delinquent. Young boys need to be bad to understand the world. Henry Shute of Exeter followed the same theory in his many novels about the troublesome Plupy Shute, a character likely based on his own father.”

It all began just after the Civil War in Portsmouth, Robinson says. "The Story of a Bad Boy", a precursor to Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, was published by Thomas Bailey Aldrich in 1869. A memorial museum to Aldrich and his book opened in 1908 at what is now Strawbery Banke Museum. Tom Bailey, the book’s hero, sets fire to a stagecoach, fires off ancient cannons, shoots a friend with an arrow while playing William Tell and almost blows himself to bits with gunpowder. And it’s all just an innocent part of growing up, Aldrich says.

Robinson has long been fascinated by the work of a number of authors who grew up in the NH seacoast in the 19th century. A cluster of writers were children here during rough and tumble times when the local economy was in decline. Yet these boys got a good education and went on to become nationally known authors and editors. Their dramatic childhood memories influenced a genre of “bad boy” books culminating in the work of Twain.