Seventeen, humorous novel by Booth Tarkington, published in 1916. The novel recalls the events of one summer in the life of William Sylvanus Baxter, his family, and his friends in a Midwestern town in the early 20th century. Seventeen-year-old Willie develops a crush on Lola Pratt, a baby-talking, flirtatious visitor. The novel describes the many obstacles Willie meets on the road to romance and presents an accurate picture, for its era, of the emotional life of a teenager.