Harold Bell Wright (1872–1944)

There is a reference in The Grapes of Wrath to this book. It seems that one of the characters found this book to have been life changing, or something.

Tom said, "Don't roust your faith bird-high an' you won't do no crawlin' with the worms."
"I know that's right. That's Scripture, ain't it?"
"I guess so," said Tom. "I never could keep Scripture straight sence I read a book name' The Winning of Barbara Worth."

So, I figured I should check it out. The author, Harold Bell Wright, after all, was show more at one time a well respected author. Other than Emily Bronte, perhaps (Wuthering Heights is total garbage and should be banned from libraries and book stores), most respected authors from olden times wrote books that are actually reasonably good.

This was an interesting book to read after The Grapes of Wrath. That book was about poor farmers leaving the dust bowl of the American midwest for the "garden of Eden" that was southern California. This book is sort of like a prequel. It deals with the turning the desert of Southern California into that Garden of Eden by way of diverting the Colorado River so as to irrigate the desert.

Well, that's the back story. The actual story is more like how a lovely young woman changed the lives of financeers and engineers by showing them that there was more to life than mere money...or something like that.

This is one of those in-the-seams books. Not quite good enough for 4*s, but too good for merely 3*s. It's a product of its times, which means moralizing, romantic and racist. Harold Bell Wright was a popular author back in the day, which means he knew how to tell a good story. show less

I only know of That Printer of Udell's because of its mention in several biographies of Ronald Reagan. Reagan read the book and joined his mother's church through baptism, and tried to live by its precepts. It was minister-turned-author Harold Bell Wright's first book, first published in 1903. Wright was a major, best-selling author of the pre-World War II era, though he is mostly forgotten now and ignored or derided by the literati and academe.

That Printer of Udell's drips with 1903 show more Progressivism and Social Gospel ideas. Christianity in the book is less about saving souls than "doing something" to make society better. To address homelessness, joblessness, and vice. Social Gospel because, by God, shouldn't we try to make earth like heaven; Progressivism because, by Govt., shouldn't we, with the right ideas and the power of the state, solve society's ills. Otherwise, it reads like light, early-1900s narrative fiction. Omniscient narrator, corny dialogue, coincidences in characters and events that break your suspension of disbelief, et cetera. It's not a bad book, but, but it isn't earth-shattering literature either. And, a lot of the guff it my get is because it is so black-and-white moral: good guys win, bad guys lose, vice is bad, grit and determination will win the day. All the stuff the glitterati, literati, and academerati deride as childish, bunkish, hokum. Not really bad stuff, but they hate it. It is literature of a moral and edifying tone, Horatio Alger type stuff, that the aforementioned folks hate and deride. Which makes me like it even more. Just to spite 'em. In the end, though, it's not a bad story. Though naïve in its political program, I still wanted the good guys to win, and I found the story engaging enough. It was a pleasant, though not life-changing read. As a historian it illustrates the period, and offers insight into the mind and soul of Ronald Reagan, for whom it was a touchstone. All-in-all, I am happy I read That Printer of Udell's. show less

The year was 1999. Most of my friends at the time were in their late teens. I was twenty. We were a group obsessed with music, we all knew we were destined for a future in the auditory arts. A couple are still involved in making music; most of us gave it up a decade or more ago. We all had a faith in God, though I think that's largely been shaken at this point. Most of the time we hung out, we discussed music, movies, books, and theology. That year, we fell under the tutelage of a much older show more mentor. He challenged us in many ways. He inspired us to think outside of the conventions of faith and brotherhood. We loved him and we believed he loved us. He ended up being a creeper in the end, but that's a story for another time.
Every time my friends and I discussed lit, our mentor would chime in with his favorite author: Harold Bell Wright. None of us had heard of him. Wright was an author of a different time who'd largely been left behind. Our mentor swore by the brilliance and majesty ofThe Shepherd of the Hills. One by one, my friends read it and brought their opinions of the book back, and before long entire nights were spent discussing The Shepherd of the Hills. I planned on reading it back then, but life took me slightly on the outside of the group and I hadn't returned to the idea in the two decades since.

The Shepherd of the Hills was a widely successful book in its day: 1907. I can see why. It’s a gripping tale that toes some of the era’s conventions without stepping over any lines. The Shepherd of the Hills features the same kind of blend of mystery and adventure that made Mark Twain what he was, but in place of Twain’s signature witticism, Wright inserts spirituality. And this spirituality is interesting, because on one hand it feels very orthodox Christian, but on the other it is full of a mysticism that I would've imagined not accepted by people of faith at the time. Likewise, the novel has progressive thoughts regarding marriage, gender roles, and other things while at the same time remaining firmly rooted in a very conservative soil.

The Shepherd of the Hills is in part an adventure story, but it is just as much a love letter. It is a love letter to the Ozark hills of Missouri and an allegory for the love letter of Jesus. Surprisingly, considering that the author could've written a very cloying Jesus-loves-you tale without alienating his audience, Wright was cautious in laying the religious allegory on too thick. Even so, I thought the tale dragged on a bit too long for my tastes. The longer it goes, the more the plot is replaced with introspection, and the more Wright’s spiritually intriguing story is pushed aside for a traditional sermon. I think Harold Bell Wright’s story is still read today because it is just different enough and it is mechanically sound, but I do have doubts that it’ll persevere through the next generation or two. There are other authors that I believe better captured the time and they will be the ones who will be remembered in the future.

I think that if I had I read this novel in 1999, along with most of my friends, I probably would’ve “agreed” with our mentor that it was a fabulous book. That’s what you do when you’re young and under the influence of another. I might've even enjoyed it some, but in reality, I wouldn't have loved it all that much. Twenty years late to the party, I can only say that it was a fine read, certainly a good example of the twentieth century’s first decade, but it didn’t grab me the same way it grabbed him. For my former mentor, this was the book to end all books. I’m sure he had his personal reasons why this book touched him so and they probably had to do with the person he was at the moment he first read it. That’s the subjectiveness of reading. Our impression of the written word is a greater reflection of the person we are at the moment we read it than of the work itself. So all that said, if you read my review because you wanted his opinion, then by all means this a five-star book. show less

The "shepherd" of the title is an old man from the city, broken and weary by family tragedy, who has journeyed to the Ozark hills to escape his painful memories and quench his spirit in the beauty and simplicity of the Hills and their people. Here, he is taken in and befriended by a family who, he finds, are direct victims of his family's painful past, and he resolves to make his place among them and make things as right as he is able. He eventually becomes accepted and loved by (most of) show more the hill people for whom he has become a Shepherd in every way. But eventually his past comes alive to drive a wedge between him and the secluded people whom he has come to love and protect, and he must try to reintroduce the concepts of forgiveness and mercy to a clan of people marked by rough justice.

This is a moving and powerful story, and the occasional lapses into Ayn Randian concepts of physical beauty signifying inner quality can perhaps be overlooked in light of the book's publication date, 1907. More distracting is the author's occasional tendency to portray momentous events and decisions, but then to gloss over the immediate aftermath, jumping ahead to a time when the event has been absorbed and moved on from. This happens a few times, and is a bit disconcerting. But on the whole this is a beautifully told story, with characters of plain and rough integrity whose fates become important to the reader. This was a John Wayne movie in 1941, which I have yet to see and am now mighty curious about. show less