Harold Bell Wright

This talk about forgotten authors got me thinking about another one that goes back even farther. I think I've mentioned before that my mother was a big Zane Grey fan when she was young. Well, Zane Grey is hardly forgotten, but another of her favorite authors from that time pretty much is: Harold Bell Wright. I've never read anything he wrote, but I have seen and enjoyed the 1941 movie based on his novel THE SHEPHERD OF THE HILLS. (Of course, I watched it because it was a John Wayne movie, not because it was based on a Harold Bell Wright novel.) The story is set in the Ozark Mountains, and while Wright may be forgotten in most places, his story is still being staged in a live production at the Shepherd of the Hills Outdoor Theatre in Branson, Missouri.

What really started me thinking about this is the fact that my mother is currently reading another Harold Bell Wright novel, THE WINNING OF BARBARA WORTH, in a fairly recent large print edition from Thorndike Press. Since I go to various libraries quite a bit, I try to keep her supplied with large print books to read, and when I saw a couple of books by Wright, I figured I ought to get one for her. It's something of a challenge to find books that she'll like, since they have to be clean, preferably set in the United States, and have at least a little action and suspense to them. I try to get older books for her as much as possible, although she likes some current authors like Janette Oke. I mentioned the other day that a book of mine set in Brownwood, Texas (the area where she's from) came out recently, and she asked if I thought the print would be large enough for her to read it. When I get my copies of it, I suppose I'll take one to her, but I'll have to warn her that there's lots of killin' and cussin' in it. Maybe she can skip those parts.