The Able McLaughlins

The Able McLaughlins is a 1923 novel by Margaret Wilson first published by Harper & Brothers. It won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1924. It won the Harper Prize Novel Contest for 1922-23, the first time the prize was awarded. Wilson published a sequel, The Law and the McLaughlins, in 1936.


A pre-publication notice described it as "a story of pioneer life in Iowa in Civil War times" focused on "a family of Scotch Covenanters." Some reviews praised the novel but viewed its prize-winning status differently. Allan Nevins called it "remarkable for the unity of impression produced" and added that "the book would win rapid distinction if introduced without its blue ribbon." But the Boston Transcript's reviewer wrote: "The book is so good as a first novel that it is impossible not to regret that it must always be judged as a prize novel." The New York Times was less enthusiastic: "Miss Wilson does quite well with her characters, develops them by phrase and incident. In the mechanics of story-telling she appears less practiced; or, perhaps, more labored. The novel does not always run smoothly from one incident to the next."