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= Harold_Bell_Wright =
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Introduction
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Harold Bell Wright (May 4, 1872 - May 24, 1944) was a best-selling
American writer of fiction, essays, and nonfiction. Although mostly
forgotten or ignored after the middle of the 20th century, he had a
very successful career; he is said to have been the first American
writer to sell a million copies of a novel and the first to make $1
million from writing fiction. Between 1902 and 1942 Wright wrote 19
books, several stage plays, and many magazine articles. More than 15
movies were made or claimed to be made from Wright's stories,
including Gary Cooper's first major movie, 'The Winning of Barbara
Worth' (1926) and the John Wayne film 'The Shepherd of the Hills'
(1941).
Early life
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Wright was born in Rome, New York, to Alma Watson and William A.
Wright. In his autobiography, 'To My Sons', Wright reports that his
father, a former Civil War lieutenant and lifetime alcoholic, dragged
"his wife and children from place to place, existing from hand to
mouth, sinking deeper and deeper, as the years passed, into the slough
of wretched poverty."
His mother, on the other hand, paid close attention to the children,
taught them moral principles and read to them from the Bible,
Shakespeare, 'The Pilgrim's Progress' and 'Hiawatha'. From his mother
Wright learned to appreciate the beauties of nature. When a neighbor
taught young Wright to draw and paint, his mother nourished his
artistic talents.
When Wright was 11, his mother died and his father abandoned the
children. For the remainder of his childhood, Wright lived with
various relatives or strangers, mostly in Ohio. He found odd jobs here
and there, frequently sleeping under bridges or in haystacks. In his
late teens he found regular employment painting both works of art and
houses. After two years of what Wright called "pre-preparation"
education at Hiram College in Hiram, Ohio, Wright became a minister
for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Pierce City,
Missouri.
He said, "As I have told you, after that first year of my
disillusionment at Hiram College, I never deliberately, with malice
aforethought, set out to be a preacher. I did not seek the job with
the Pierce City Church, the job found me." 'To My Sons', pg. 204.
Other churches he pastored were located in Pittsburg, Kansas; Forest
Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri; Lebanon, Missouri; and Redlands,
California.
Writing and preaching career
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In 1902, while pastoring the Christian Church in Pittsburg, Kansas, he
wrote a melodramatic story, entitled 'That Printer of Udell's', which
he intended to read to his congregation, one chapter per week, at
successive Sunday night meetings. But before he read it to his
congregation, the story was published in serial form in 'The Christian
Century', his denomination's official journal.
Wright despised the magazine version so much that he "hid the poor
mutilated corpse in the bottom of the least used drawer of my desk and
moved on to other things" (To My Sons, p. 213). Yet parishioners
enjoyed the story so much that they encouraged him to publish it in
book form, which he did. But it was Wright's second novel, 'The
Shepherd of the Hills', published in 1907 and set in Branson,
Missouri, that established him as a best-selling author. That book
also attracted an overwhelming number of tourists to the little-known
town of Branson, resulting in its becoming a major tourist
destination.
In 1905 Wright accepted the position of pastor at the Christian Church
in Lebanon, Missouri. Wright remained there until 1907 when he
accepted another pastoral position in California. In that same year,
after the success of 'The Shepherd of the Hills' (his first book to
sell one million copies), Wright resigned as pastor of the Redlands,
California, Christian Church, moved to a ranch near El Centro,
California, and devoted the rest of his life to writing popular
stories. In 1911, he published his most popular book, 'The Winning of
Barbara Worth', a historical novel set in the Imperial Valley of
southeastern California.
Themes and later work
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Wright was motivated to leave the ministry because he realized he
could make more money writing fiction. In most of his novels,
beginning with 'That Printer of Udell's', he attacked the hypocrisy
and impractical nature of popular churches. To Wright, hard work,
integrity and concrete efforts to aid people in need were far more
important than church doctrines or sermons.
In 1909, pastors across America were incensed by his third book, 'The
Calling of Dan Matthews', which told the story of a young preacher
who, like Wright, resigned from the ministry in order to retain his
integrity. The story included the town of Corinth, which was obviously
that of Lebanon, Missouri. Several townspeople from Lebanon were
highly disappointed in the novel and called it disgraceful. In 1910
Alexander Corkey wrote a novel that countered Wright's message. In
'The Victory of Allen Rutledge: A Tale of the Middle West', another
young pastor in another midwestern town, faces moral challenges
similar to those faced by Wright's hero. But in Corkey's book the
pastor takes a courageous stand for principle, reforms the church and
remains in the ministry. Though Wright's book quickly sold a million
copies, Corkey's remained largely unknown.
Wright never responded to his critics, except to say that he never
intended to create great literature, only to minister to ordinary
people.
Personal life
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Harold Bell Wright married Frances Long in 1899 and they divorced in
1920. They had three children from this marriage: Gilbert Munger
Wright (b. March 17, 1901, d. April 25, 1966), Paul Williams Wright
(b. 1902, d. June 3, 1928, from an undetermined illness), and Norman
Hall Wright (b. January 8, 1910, d. July 21, 2001). Wright married
Winifred Mary Potter Duncan on August 5, 1920, and remained married to
her until his death. He also maintained a home in Palm Springs,
California.
Later life and death
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From 1914 to about 1933 Wright lived mostly in Tucson, Arizona.
Wright's land on Tucson's east side became the Harold Bell Wright
Estates subdivision and the streets bear names of some of his
fictional characters and book titles such as Printer Udell, Barbara
Worth, Shepherd Hills, Brian Kent, and Marta Hillgrove. A small city
park in the neighborhood is named for him. His home has been restored
and is now a private residence.
From 1935 until his death in 1944, Wright lived on his "Quiet Hills
Farm" in or near Escondido, California. He traveled much, staying for
months at a time in primitive camps, vacation homes, hotels or
resorts, in such places as Riverside, San Diego, Palm Springs and
Benbow, California; Tucson and Prescott, Arizona; Hawaii; and the
Barbados. Wright usually lived one or two years in a location before
using it as the setting for one of his novels.
Wright struggled most of his life with lung disease. He died of
bronchial pneumonia in Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla,
California on May 24, 1944, twenty days after his 72nd birthday, and
was buried in the Cathedral Mausoleum, in Greenwood Memorial Park, in
San Diego.
Book sales compared to other authors
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In 1945 Frank Luther Mott developed a system to compare top selling
books from 1665 ('Golden Multitudes, the Story of Bestsellers in the
United States'). To make comparisons possible, Mott defines a
bestseller as a book with sales equal to one percent of the US
population.
His ranking:
# Charles Dickens, 16 bestsellers;
# Erle Stanley Gardner, 7;
# Sir Walter Scott, 6; and
# James Fenimore Cooper, Gene Stratton Porter, and Harold Bell Wright,
5 each.
Scott and Dickens were not American authors, and Gardner's successes
came later than Wright's. By Mott's reckoning Harold Bell Wright was
one of only three American authors to write five best sellers from the
arrival of the pilgrims in America through the first quarter of the
20th century. And Wright's total book sales were higher than Cooper
and Porter. No American beat, or quite matched, Harold Bell Wright's
record until Erle Stanley Gardner, whose career peaked 30 years after
Wright's.
Literary criticism
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Wright's biographer, Lawrence V. Tagg ('Harold Bell Wright:
Storyteller to America', Westernlore Press, 1986), gathered a
collection of contemporary attacks on Wright.
Owen Wister’s comments are representative: “I doubt if the present
hour furnishes any happier symbols [of the quack novel] than we have
in Mr. Wright [and 'The Eyes of the World']. It gathers into its four
hundred and sixty pages all the elements ...of the quack-novel. It
is,” Wister says, “stale, distorted, a sham, a puddle of words,” and
“a mess of mildewed pap.” It was also number one on the Publishers
Weekly bestseller list for 1914. In 1946, Irvin Harlow Hart wrote,
"Harold Bell Wright supplied more negative data on the literary
quality of the taste of the fiction reading public than any other
author. No critic has ever damned Wright with even the faintest
praise." (Hundred Leading Authors, p. 287)
'Wonder Stories' panned Wright's only science fiction novel, 'The
Devil's Highway', in 1932, saying "If not for the mawkish
sentimentality, and endless moralizing of this book, it might have
been an interesting piece of work". 'Amazing Stories', however, found
the novel "a very creditable attempt at combining two almost
incompatible conceptions: The psychic and the physical" and concluded
that 'The Devil's Highway' "is quite enjoyable, as it is logical and
exceedingly well written".
California Historical Landmark
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Wright's Tecolote Rancho Site is a California Historical Landmark
number 1034 and reads:
:NO. 1034 TECOLOTE RANCHO SITE (Imperial Valley home of Harold Bell
Wright) - Prolific author Harold Bell Wright purchased 160 acres here
in 1907. While living in a tent he built Rancho El Tecolote,
constructing a woven arrowweed studio in 1908 and a ranch house in
1909. From 1907 to 1916 he wrote three best sellers, including the
historical novel, The Winning of Barbara Worth, a chronicle of desert
reclamation and the Colorado River flood of 1905. As Wright’s most
successful and important book, it brought the Imperial Valley and its
agricultural wealth to the attention of the nation. The book’s heroine
Barbara Worth became an icon for the region.
Published works
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* 'That Printer of Udell's' Book Supply Company, 1902-03
* 'The Shepherd of the Hills' Book Supply Company, 1907, illustrated
by Frank G. Cootes
* 'The Calling of Dan Matthews' Book Supply Company, 1909
* 'The Uncrowned King' Book Supply Company, 1910
* 'The Winning of Barbara Worth' Book Supply Company, 1911,
illustrated by Frank G. Cootes
* 'Their Yesterdays' Book Supply Company, 1912, illustrated by Frank
G. Cootes
* 'The Eyes of the World' Book Supply Company, 1914, illustrated by
Frank G. Cootes
* 'When a Man's a Man' A. L. Burt Company, 1916
* 'The Re-Creation of Brian Kent' Book Supply Company, 1919
* 'Helen of the Old House' D. Appleton and Company, 1921
* 'The Mine with the Iron Door' D. Appleton and Company, 1923
* 'A Son of His Father' D. Appleton and Company, 1925
* 'God and the Groceryman' D. Appleton and Company, 1927
* 'Long Ago Told: Legends of the Papago Indians' D. Appleton and
Company, 1929
* 'Exit' D. Appleton and Company, 1930
* 'The Devil's Highway' D. Appleton and Company, 1932
* 'Ma Cinderella' Harper and Brothers, 1932
* 'To My Sons' Harper and Brothers, 1934
* 'The Man Who Went Away' Harper and Brothers, 1942
Filmography
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*' (1917)
*'The Shepherd of the Hills' (1919, also director)
*'When a Man's a Man' (1924)
*'The Mine with the Iron Door' (1924)
*'The Re-Creation of Brian Kent' (1925)
*'A Son of His Father' (1925)
*'The Winning of Barbara Worth' (1926)
*'The Shepherd of the Hills' (1928)
*'The Eyes of the World' (1930)
*'When a Man's a Man' (1935)
*'The Calling of Dan Matthews' (1935)
*'The Mine with the Iron Door' (1936)
*'Wild Brian Kent' (1936)
*'Secret Valley' (1937)
*'It Happened Out West' (1937)
*'The Californian' (1937)
*'Western Gold' (1937)
*'The Shepherd of the Hills' (1941)
*'Massacre River' (1949, uncredited)
*'The Shepherd of the Hills' (1964)
See also
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*California Historical Landmarks in Imperial County
*California Historical Landmark
Further reading
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* Jones, Charles T. "Brother Hal: The Preaching Career of Harold Bell
Wright." 'Missouri Historical Review' 78 (July 1984): 387-413.
[
http://digital.shsmo.org/cdm/ref/collection/mhr/id/41068?_gl=1*1ocuwof*_ga*MTkyNjAzOTc5My4xNjk4NDYxMDM0*_ga_B5NXL6MKLP*MTY5ODU3MjcxNy4yLjAuMTY5ODU3MjcxNy4wLjAuMA..
online]
* Langdon, Thomas C. "Harold Bell Wright: Citizen of Tucson." 'Journal
of Arizona History' 16.1 (1975): 77-98.
[
https://www.jstor.org/stable/41695233 online]
* Smith, Erin A. "Melodrama, Popular Religion, and Literary Value: The
Case of Harold Bell Wright." 'American Literary History' 17.2 (2005):
217-243. [
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3568032 online]
* Tagg, Lawrence V. 'Harold Bell Wright: Storyteller to America'
(Westernlore Press, 1986).
External links
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* [
https://web.archive.org/web/20110602151056/http://gchudleigh.com/
Biography and book descriptions] by Gerald Chudleigh
*
*
*
*
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* [
http://www.freewebs.com/piercecitymuseum Harold Bell Wright Museum]
in Pierce City, Missouri
*
* [
http://booma.us/beta/projects/mine_iron_door.html Harold Bell
Wright's The Mine with the Iron Door bookmap] in Tucson, Arizona
License
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Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Bell_Wright
