BIOS* 
 
 HAROLD BELL WRIGHT 
 
 A BIOGRAPHY 
 
 INTIMATE AND 
 AUTHORITATIVE 
 
 By ELSBERY 
 W. REYNOLDS 
 
 This booklet will give the reader a knowledge 
 and understanding of the life work, aims and pur¬ 
 poses of Harold Bell Wright as expressed through 
 his books. It is published for free distribution 
 by the publishers of the author’s works. Extra 
 copies furnished on request. Your efforts to give 
 it a wider circulation will be greatly appreciated. 
 
 — The Publishers. 
 
Harold Bell Wright 
 
 Author of 
 
 That Printer of Udell’s 
 
 The Shepherd of the Hills 
 
 The Calling of Dan Matthews 
 The Uncrowned King 
 
 The Winning of Barbara Worth 
 Their Yesterdays 
 
 The Eyes of the World 
 When a Man’s a Man 
 
Harold Bell Wright 
 
 A Biography 
 
 Intimate and Authoritative 
 
 By 
 
 Elsbery W. Reynolds 
 
 The biography of a man is of impor¬ 
 tance and interest to other men just to 
 the degree that his life and work touches 
 and influences the life of his time and the 
 lives of individuals. 
 
 Only in a feeble way, at best, can the 
 life story of any man be told on the 
 printed page. The story is better as it is 
 written on the hearts of men and women 
 and the man himself does the writing. 
 
 He lives longest who lives best. He 
 who carves deepest against corroding 
 time is he who touches with surest hand 
 the greatest number of human hearts. 
 
 He may or may not be a prodigy of 
 physical strength. He may or may not 
 be a tower of mental energy. But so 
 long as this old world stands the man 
 with an overpowering desire for all that 
 is best for the race to be in the race, 
 whose life is in tune with the divine and 
 with the good that is within us all, 
 whether he be orator, writer, artist or 
 artisan, is a giant among men. 
 
 That which we read makes a deeper 
 and more lasting impression on our lives 
 than that which we see or hear. An au¬ 
 thor with millions of readers must be a 
 great central power of thought and in- 
 
 1 
 
fluence, at least, in his own day and gen¬ 
 eration. We can understand the truth of 
 this through a study of the aims and life 
 purposes of Harold Bell Wright as ex¬ 
 pressed through his books and the cir¬ 
 cumstances under which they were writ¬ 
 ten. 
 
 The wonderful popularity of this au¬ 
 thor is well estimated by the millions of 
 copies of his books that have been sold. 
 This is also the greatest testimonial that 
 can be given to the merit of his work. 
 The great heart of the reading public is 
 an unprejudiced critic. “Is not the great¬ 
 est voice the one to which the greatest 
 number of hearts listen with pleasure?” 
 
 When a man has attained to great emi¬ 
 nence under adverse circumstances we 
 sometimes wonder to what heights he 
 might have climbed under conditions 
 more favorable. Who can tell? It is 
 just as easy to say what the young man 
 of twenty will be when a matured man 
 of forty. The boy of poverty makes a 
 man of power while the boy nursed in 
 the lap of luxury makes a man of unevent¬ 
 ful life, and, again, a life started with a 
 handicap remains so through its possible 
 three score years and ten and the life 
 begun with advantages multiplies its 
 talents ten and a hundred fold. 
 
 So, after all, is not the heart of man 
 the real man and is it not the guiding star 
 of his ambition, his will, his determina¬ 
 tion, his conscience? 
 
 Harold Bell Wright, the second of four 
 sons, was born May 4, 1872, in Rome, 
 Oneida County, New York. From an 
 
 2 
 
earlier biographer we quote the follow¬ 
 ing: 
 
 “Some essential facts must be dug from 
 out the past where they lie embedded in 
 the detrital chronicles of the race. Say, 
 then, that away back in 1640 a ship load 
 of Anglo-Saxon freedom landed in New 
 England. After a brief period some of the 
 more venturesome spirits emigrated to 
 the far west and settled amid the undula¬ 
 tions of the Mohawk valley in central 
 New York. Protestant France also sent 
 westward some Gallic chivalry hungering 
 for freedom. The fringe of this garment 
 of civilization spread out and reached 
 also into the same valley. English de¬ 
 termination and Huguenot aspiration 
 touched elbows in the war for political 
 and religious freedom, and touched hearts 
 and hands in the struggle for economic 
 freedom. Their generations were a genu¬ 
 ine aristocracy. Mutual struggles after 
 mutual aims cemented casual acquaint¬ 
 ance into enduring friendship. William 
 Wright met, loved and married Alma T. 
 Watson. To them four sons were born. 
 A carpenter contractor, a man who builds, 
 contrives and constructs, is joined to a 
 woman into whose soul of wholesome re¬ 
 finement come images of dainty beauty, 
 where they glow and grow radiant. With 
 lavish unrestraint the life of this French 
 woman pours itself into her sons. The 
 third child died in infancy. The eldest 
 survived his mother by some thirteen 
 years. The youngest is a constructive 
 mechanical engineer. The second son is 
 Harold Bell Wright. 
 
 “During ten years this mother and this 
 
 3 
 
son live in rare intimacy. The boy’s first 
 enduring impression of this life is the 
 vision of the mother bending affection¬ 
 ately over him while criticising the water 
 color sketch his unpractised fingers had 
 just made. Crude blendings and faulty 
 lines were pointed out, then touched into 
 harmony and more accurate perspective 
 by her quick skill. Together their eyes 
 watched shades dance on sunny slopes, 
 cloud shadows race among the hills or lie 
 lazily in the valley below. 
 
 “Exuberant Nature and ebullient boy 
 loved each other from the first. Alone, 
 enravished, he often wandered far in sheer 
 joy of living. He brings, one day, from 
 his rambles a bunch of immortelles which 
 mother graciously receives. Twenty 
 years later the boy, man-grown, bows 
 reverently over a box of withered flowers 
 —the same bouquet the mother took that 
 day and laid away as a precious memento 
 of his boyish love. Such was the first 
 decade. 
 
 “A ten year old boy, motherless, steals 
 from harsh labor and yet harsher sur¬ 
 roundings, runs to the home of sacred 
 memories, clambers to the attic, and 
 spends the night in anguished solitude. 
 This was his first Gethsemane. For ten 
 years buffeted and beaten, battling with 
 adversity, sometimes losing but never 
 lost, snatching learning here and there, 
 hating sham, loving passionately, mis¬ 
 understood, misapprehended, too stub¬ 
 bornly proud to ask apologies or make 
 useless explanations, fighting poverty in 
 the depths of privation, wrestling exist¬ 
 ence from toil he loathed, befriending 
 
 4 
 
many and also befriended much, but al¬ 
 ways face to face with the grim tragedy 
 which has held part of the stage since 
 Eden. 
 
 “Such was the second decade. The first 
 was spent on hill sides where shadows 
 only made the light more buoyant as 
 they fled away. The second was passed 
 in the valley where the shadow hung 
 lazily till the cloud grew very black and 
 drenched the soil. 
 
 “Lured to college, he undertook to ac¬ 
 quire academic culture. As is well known, 
 college life with its professorial anecdotes 
 and jokes, its student pranks and grind, 
 is routine drudgery and cobwebbery prose. 
 Bookish professors and conventional stu¬ 
 dents rarely have just such an animate 
 problem of French artistry and Bohe¬ 
 mian experience to solve. They did nobly, 
 to be sure, but here was a mind which 
 threw over them all the glamour of ro¬ 
 mance.” 
 
 Mr. Wright entered the Preparatory 
 Department of Hiram College at the age 
 of twenty, having previously accepted the 
 faith and identified himself with the 
 Christian Church in the little quarry town 
 of Grafton, Ohio. He continued active 
 in the different departments of work in 
 his church all during his school years 
 with the ultimate result of his entering 
 the ministry. 
 
 Having no financial means, while in 
 school he made his way by doing odd jobs 
 about town, house painting and decorat¬ 
 ing, sketching, etc. After two years of 
 school life, while laboring to gain funds 
 in order that he might continue his 
 
 5 
 
schooling, he contracted from overwork 
 and out-door exposure a severe case of 
 pneumonia that left his eyesight badly 
 impaired and his constitution in such 
 condition, that to the present day, he has 
 never fully recovered. 
 
 Air castles were tumbled and hopes 
 blasted when his physician advised him 
 that it would be fatal to reenter school 
 for, at least, another year. Whereupon, 
 seeking health and a means of existence, 
 starting from a point on the Mahoning 
 river, he canoed with sketch and note 
 book, but alone, down stream a distance 
 of more than five hundred miles. From 
 this point, by train, he embarked for the 
 Ozark mountains in southwest Missouri. 
 Here, for some months, while gradually 
 regaining his strength, he secured em¬ 
 ployment at farm work, sketching and 
 painting at intervals. 
 
 Once more, he found himself on bed¬ 
 rock, taking his last cent to pay express 
 charges back to Ohio on some finished 
 pictures, but, this time, fortune smiled 
 promptly with a good check by return 
 mail. 
 
 It was while in the Ozarks that Harold 
 Bell Wright preached his first sermon. 
 Being a regular attendant at the services, 
 held in the little mountain log school 
 house, he was asked to talk to the people, 
 one Sunday, when the regular preacher 
 had failed to appear. 
 
 From this Sunday morning talk, that 
 could hardly be called a sermon, and 
 others that followed, he came to feel that 
 he could do more good in the ministry 
 than he could in any other field of labor, 
 
 6 
 
and soon thereafter accepted a regular 
 pastorate at Pierce City, Missouri, at a 
 yearly salary of four hundred dollars 
 True to a resolve, that his work should be 
 that through which he could help the 
 most people, he had now chosen the min¬ 
 istry. A further resolve that he would 
 give up this ministry, chosen with such 
 earnest conviction, should another field 
 of labor offer more extensive measures 
 for reaching mankind, took him, in later 
 years, into the field of literature. He left 
 the ministry with many regrets but with 
 the same earnest conviction with which 
 he had earlier chosen it. 
 
 Following the publication of “The 
 Shepherd of the Hills” his publishers as¬ 
 sured him that he could secure greater 
 results from his pen rather than his pul¬ 
 pit and prevailed upon him to henceforth 
 make literature his life work. This was 
 in every way consistent with his teaching 
 that every man’s ministry is that work 
 through which he can accomplish the 
 greatest good. 
 
 In the battle of life there is always the 
 higher ground that the many covet but 
 few attain. In reaching this height Mr. 
 Wright has given to a multitude, his time, 
 strength and substance, that they, too, 
 might further advance. He is companion¬ 
 able, loving and loyal to his friends. He 
 hates sham and hypocrisy and any at¬ 
 tempt to glorify one’s self by means other 
 than the fruits of one’s own labor. 
 
 This boy, who from the death of his 
 mother, was driven into a hand to hand 
 struggle with life for a bare existence, 
 was necessarily forced into contact with 
 
 7 
 
much that was vicious and corrupt. But 
 he in no way became a part of it. That 
 same inherent love for mental cleanliness 
 and spiritual truths that has so distin¬ 
 guished the works of the man kept the 
 boy unstained in his unfortunate environ¬ 
 ment. 
 
 Mr. Wright resigned his charge at 
 Pierce City for the larger work at Pitts¬ 
 burg, Kansas. In the second year of his 
 pastorate—1899—he married Frances E. 
 Long in Buffalo, New York. This union 
 of love had its beginning back in the 
 school days at Hiram. Unto them have 
 been born three sons, Gilbert Munger, 
 1901, Paul Williams, 1902, and Norman 
 Hall, 1910. 
 
 In Pittsburg, Mr. Wright received en¬ 
 thusiastic support from his church people. 
 Finances were soon in a satisfactory con¬ 
 dition, and church attendance reached the 
 capacity of the building, but still the 
 young pastor was not satisfied. Pitts¬ 
 burg was a mining town, a young men’s 
 town. A little city with saloons and 
 brothels doing business on every hand. 
 His soul was on fire for his church to do 
 a larger work and, with the hope of arous¬ 
 ing his people, he conceived the idea of 
 writing “That Printer of Udell’s,” plan¬ 
 ning to read the story, by installments, on 
 special evenings of successive weeks, to 
 his congregation. 
 
 Pittsburg was made the principal scene 
 and the church of the story was the kind 
 of church he wanted his Pittsburg charge 
 to be. The teachings set forth, through 
 the preacher of the story, in the latter 
 half of the book, are the identical things 
 
 8 
 
the author was preaching. The first 
 chapters of the story are very largely col¬ 
 ored by Mr. Wright’s early life, but they 
 are by no means autobiographical. 
 
 “That Printer of Udell’s” was written 
 without thought or intention of offering 
 it for publication. During the author’s 
 ministry he made some of the warmest 
 and most abiding friendships of his life, 
 and it was through certain of these 
 friends that he was persuaded from read¬ 
 ing the story, as intended, but to offer it 
 for publication, giving it, thus, a wider 
 usefulness. 
 
 Having a leave of absence of several 
 weeks from his church during the winter 
 of 1901-2 he accepted an invitation from 
 the pastor of a Chicago church to hold a 
 special meeting, and it was during this 
 meeting that the author and his publisher 
 met for the first time. Mr. Wright de¬ 
 livered a sermon entitled “Sculptors of 
 Life” that was so impressive that I 
 sought him out with entreaties to repeat 
 his sermon as a lecture to a certain com¬ 
 pany of young people. 
 
 The acquaintance thus begun very 
 quickly became one of friendship, with¬ 
 out any knowledge or thought that it 
 would in time lead to a co-operative life 
 work, and when the author later offered 
 his book for publication it was without 
 request or thought of financial remunera¬ 
 tion. Mr. Wright, however, was given a 
 contract paying him the highest royalty 
 that was being paid for any author’s first 
 book. 
 
 “That Printer of Udell’s” was written 
 almost entirely in the late hours of the 
 
 9 
 
night and the very early hours of the 
 morning. Great demands were being: 
 made on the author’s time in the way of? 
 requests for officiating and speaking at: 
 public and civic functions in addition to* 
 the now heavy requirements of his; 
 church. His aggressive activities, backedl 
 by his splendid spirit, fearlessness ancf- 
 courage in combating the evils of his little 
 city made for him a host of admirers, 
 alike, among his enemies and friends. 
 When he left to accept a pastorate in 
 Kansas City, Missouri, his resignation 
 was not accepted. 
 
 After one year in Kansas City he 
 found that he was not physically able to 
 carry out the great city work as he had 
 dreamed it and planned it, on a scale 
 that would satisfy his longings for serv¬ 
 ice, and it made him seriously consider 
 whether there was not some other way 
 that would more equally measure with his 
 strength. He went again to the Ozarks r 
 this time for rest and meditation, and! 
 while there began writing “The Shepherd 
 of the Hills.” This story has a peculiar 
 significance for the author. He feels 
 toward it as he can not feel for any of his 
 other books. “The Shepherd of the 
 Hills” was written as a test. The 
 strength of the message he was able to 
 put into the story and the response it 
 should find in the hearts of men and 
 women was to decide for him his ministry 
 henceforth, whether he would teach the 
 precepts of the Man of Galilee by voice 
 or pen. It was a testing time that bore 
 fruit not only in this simple, sweet story, 
 that to quote an eminent divine, “is one of 
 
 10 
 
the greatest sermons of our day,” but re¬ 
 sulted as well in the splendid volumes 
 that have followed. 
 
 “The Shepherd of the Hills” was 
 finished during the year of his pastorate 
 at Lebanon, Missouri, and but for the 
 sympathy, encouragement and helpful un¬ 
 derstanding of his church officers and 
 membership, it is doubtful if the story 
 could ever have been completed. When 
 Mr. Wright delivered the manuscript to 
 his publishers the first of the year, 1907, 
 for publication the next fall, he had ac¬ 
 cepted the pastorate of the Christian 
 Church in Redlands, California, hoping 
 this land of sunshine would give him a 
 larger measure of health. 
 
 Some months later, resigning his Red¬ 
 lands pastorate, he went to the Imperial 
 Valley and there, the following year, 
 wrote “The Calling of Dan Matthews.” 
 The church and its problems were weigh¬ 
 ing on the author and affecting his life 
 no less than when he was in the minis¬ 
 try and it was only natural that he should 
 give to the world “a picture that is true to 
 the four corners of the earth.” Every inci¬ 
 dent in the story has its counterpart in 
 real life and, with but few exceptions, 
 came under the author’s personal observa¬ 
 tion. He did not get the real pleasure out 
 of writing “The Calling of Dan Mat¬ 
 thews” that he did the story which pre¬ 
 ceded it. But he could not, try as he 
 would, escape it. 
 
 The publication of “The Calling of Dan 
 Matthews” in the fall of 1909 was just 
 two years after the publication of “The 
 Shepherd of the Hills.” 
 
 11 
 
“The Winning of Barbara Worth” re¬ 
 quired more time and effort in the col¬ 
 lecting 7 of material than any book the 
 author had written, but probably gave 
 him, at least, as much pleasure. He is 
 very careful with regard to descriptive 
 detail, and even while writing “The 
 Calling of Dan Matthews” he was mak¬ 
 ing a study of the desert and this great 
 reclamation project. Before sending his 
 manuscript for publication he had it 
 checked over by the best engineers on the 
 Pacific coast for inaccuracies in any of 
 his descriptions that involved engineering 
 or reclamation problems. 
 
 “The Winning of Barbara Worth” 
 bears the distinction, without doubt, of 
 being the only book ever published that 
 called its publisher and illustrator from a 
 distance of two and three thousand miles, 
 into the heart of a great desert, for a con¬ 
 sultation with its author. This story of 
 the Imperial Valley and its reclamation 
 was written in the same study as was 
 “The Calling of Dan Matthews.” A study 
 of rude construction, about eighteen by 
 thirty-five feet, with thatched roof and 
 outside covering of ^native arrow-weed 
 and built entirely by the author himself. 
 
 When Mr. Wright finished “The Win¬ 
 ning of Barbara Worth”—so named in 
 honor of Ruth Barbara Reynolds—he was 
 a sick man. He often worked the night 
 through, overtaxing his nerves and 
 strength. For several months he virtually 
 dwelt within the four walls of his study 
 and for a time it was feared he would not 
 live to finish the book. He wrote the last 
 chapters while confined to his bed, after 
 
 12 
 
which he was taken by easy stages, 
 through the kindness of friends, to that 
 part of Northern Arizona that is so de¬ 
 lightful to all lovers of the out-of-doors. 
 In this bracing mile-high atmosphere he 
 soon grew well and strong, almost to rug¬ 
 gedness, and on the day his book was 
 published he was riding in a wild-horse 
 chase over a country wild and rough where 
 the writer of this sketch would only care* 
 to go, carefully picking his way, on foot. 
 So it was weeks after publication before 
 the author saw the first bound copy of his 
 book. During these summer and fall 
 months, while regaining his strength, he 
 was busy with sketch and note book 
 collecting material, for this part of Ari¬ 
 zona is the scene of his novel “When a 
 Man’s a Man.” 
 
 “Their Yesterdays” was written in 
 Tucson, Arizona, and was published in 
 the fall of 1912, just one year after the 
 publication of “The Winning of Barbara 
 Worth.” In order to write this story, 
 with the least possible strain on his 
 nerves and vitality, Mr. Wright 'Secluded 
 himself in a little cottage purchased espe¬ 
 cially for this work. His material was 
 collected from the observations of his 
 thoughtful years and his intimate knowl¬ 
 edge of human hearts. This book is, per¬ 
 haps, more representative of the real 
 Harold Bell Wright than anything he has 
 done. It is the true presentation of his 
 views on life, love and religion. I once 
 asked Mr. Wright, in behalf of the fac¬ 
 ulty, to deliver an address to a graduating 
 class of some twenty-odd young men of 
 the Morgan Park Academy (Chicago). 
 
 13 
 
He was very busy and I suggested that 
 without special effort he make the com¬ 
 monplace remarks that one so often hears 
 on like occasions. For the first time that 
 I remember he somewhat impatiently re¬ 
 sented a suggestion from me, saying, 
 “These young men are on the threshold 
 of life and the very best that is within me 
 is due to them. I can give to them only 
 "such a message as I would, were I to 
 stand before judgment on the morrow.” 
 It was with just this spirit that the 
 author wrote “Their Yesterdays.” 
 
 Following “Their Yesterdays” the next 
 book in order of publication was “The 
 Eyes of the World” published in the fall 
 of 1914. It was written in the same 
 arrow-weed study on Tecolote Rancho in 
 the Imperial Valley where he wrote “The 
 Calling of Dan Matthews” and “The 
 Winning of Barbara Worth.” Being fully 
 in sympathy with the author’s purpose 
 in writing this story, the campaign of ad¬ 
 vertising was of such educational charac¬ 
 ter and so eventful in many ways, that it 
 will long be remembered by authors, pub¬ 
 lishers and reading public, and, we trust, 
 make for cleaner books and pictures. 
 
 As it was in the writing of “The Call¬ 
 ing of Dan Matthews” so it was in the 
 writing of “The Eyes of the World,” the 
 sense of duty stood highest. The modern 
 trend in books and music and art and 
 drama had so incensed the author that 
 “The Eyes of the World” was the result 
 of his all impelling desire for cleaner liv¬ 
 ing and thinking. As is true of all writ¬ 
 ers, there are sometimes those who fail 
 to catch the message in Mr. Wright’s 
 
 14 
 
books. He is occasionally misunderstood, 
 and that was especially true with “The 
 Eyes of the World.” To the great major¬ 
 ity of people, clean living and thinking, the 
 message was not to be misinterpreted and to 
 them the book is blessed. To that small 
 minority it was convicting and, from a 
 few such, it brought forth condemnation 
 which, in a fellow author here and there, 
 was pronounced and emphasized by envy 
 and jealousy. To critics of this class Mr. 
 Wright makes no reply and is not in the 
 least disturbed. 
 
 “The Uncrowned King,” a small vol¬ 
 ume—an allegory—published in 1910, to 
 me, is one of the most delightful of Mr. 
 Wright’s books. Possibly, it has an added 
 charm because of certain peculiar con¬ 
 ditions. It was written in Redlands, 
 California, during the winter of 1909-10, 
 although the notion for the little volume 
 occurred to the author while living in 
 Kansas City. It was one of those times 
 when the longing and will to do a work 
 greater than the physical would permit 
 seemed almost overpowering when, 
 unconsciously coming to his aid, a young 
 woman talking to a company of Chris¬ 
 tian Endeavorers chanced to remark, 
 “After all, the real kings of earth are 
 seldom crowned.” All through the even¬ 
 ing service thoughts that this inspired 
 kept running through the author’s mind 
 and late that same night he wrote the out¬ 
 line which was only completed some years 
 later and given to his publishers to enrich 
 the world. 
 
 His first four novels in order of pub¬ 
 lication have been dramatized and en- 
 
 15 
 
joyed by thousands from before the foot¬ 
 lights and it has been a delight to renew 
 acquaintances with old friends in this 
 way. It remained for “The Eyes of the 
 World” to be the first of his books to be 
 presented in a feature production of mo¬ 
 tion pictures. 
 
 The likes and dislikes of Harold Bell 
 Wright are quite pronounced. He is un¬ 
 pretending, cares not for the lime-light 
 and avoids interviews for the public 
 press. Loud, boisterous conversation is 
 but little less offensive to him than vul¬ 
 garity in speech or action. His friends 
 are strong, clean-minded men who are 
 doing things in the world and are as 
 necessary to his being as the air to his 
 existence, and his generosity to them is 
 no less marked than his caring and pro¬ 
 viding for his family, which is almost a 
 passion. He is extremely fond of most 
 forms of out-door life. The desert with 
 its vast expanse, fierce solitude and varied 
 colors is no less attractive to him than the 
 peaceful quiet of wooded dells, the beauty 
 of flowering meadows or the rugged 
 mountains with their roaring trout 
 streams that furnish him hours of sport 
 with rod and line. He enjoys hunting, 
 horse-back riding or long tramps afoot. 
 But when there is work to be done it is 
 the one thing that bulks largest and all 
 else must wait. 
 
 After finishing “The Eyes of the 
 World” Mr. Wright embarked on the build¬ 
 ing of a home in the Santa Monica moun¬ 
 tains near Hollywood, California. So in 
 the summer of 1915 the little family of five 
 began making their residence in the new 
 
 16 
 
canyon home, one of nature’s delightful 
 spots. 
 
 Then again, the author went into camp 
 in the Arizona desert while writing 
 “When a Man’s a Man/’ For he finds it 
 very helpful to live in the atmosphere of 
 his story while doing the actual writing 
 and he also avoids frequent interruption. 
 I think he got more real enjoyment out 
 of this story than any he has previously 
 done. It is a story of the out-of-doors in 
 this great unfenced land where a man 
 must be a man. I suppose, too, he enjoyed 
 writing this work so much, partly, because 
 it comes so easy for him to just tell a 
 story without the intervention of some 
 nerve racking problem. The only book 
 he has heretofore written that is purely a 
 story is “The Shepherd of the Hills,” and 
 I sometimes wonder to what proportion 
 of his readers does this Ozark story hold 
 first place. To all such, I am sure, 
 “When a Man’s a Mian” will find a recep¬ 
 tion of special heartiness because it is just 
 a fine, big, wholesome novel of simple 
 sweetness and virile strength. 
 
 I have written this sketch of Harold 
 Bell Wright that you may know him as 
 intimately, if possible, as if you had met 
 him in person. But should you have the 
 opportunity of making his acquaintance 
 do not deny yourself the pleasure. If 
 you are a lover of his books I am sure 
 you are just the kind of person that the 
 author himself delights to meet. 
 
 “Relay Heights,” 
 
 February 15, 1916. 
 
 17 
 
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