Young Wallingford

A comic novel about a cheerful young man who runs clever swindles that stay tantalizingly on the right side of prison. Jonathan Reuben Wix is a rogue with an irresistible grin and an instinct for exploiting the greedy and gullible. His more cautious friend Clifford Gilman provides the perfect straight man as Wix talks him into increasingly dubious schemes involving a mysterious character named Horace G. Daw and the wild world of wheat trading. Chester writes with a light, wry touch, making Wix's cons genuinely amusing rather than sinister. The humor bubbles from the gap between Wix's cheerful confidence and the increasingly precarious nature of his ventures. This was the prequel to Chester's hit Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford, and it captures the giddy speculation culture of the early 20th century with sharp social commentary wrapped in pure entertainment.