The Old Shepherd of Branson: the Life and Times of Harold Bell Wright

This biography of Harold Bell Wright traces the life and works of the most popular American author of the first 25 years of the Twentieth Century. His appeal was to the ordinary men and women who lived in small towns and rural places of America. Harold Bell Wright in 1907 turned the isolated corner of southwestern Missouri and the town of Branson into a tourist sensation almost overnight. He did it by writing a novel about the place and its people. He called it "The Shepherd of the...
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This biography of Harold Bell Wright traces the life and works of the most popular American author of the first 25 years of the Twentieth Century. His appeal was to the ordinary men and women who lived in small towns and rural places of America. Harold Bell Wright in 1907 turned the isolated corner of southwestern Missouri and the town of Branson into a tourist sensation almost overnight. He did it by writing a novel about the place and its people. He called it "The Shepherd of the Hills." In it he revealed the true nature and character of the people and showcased the beautiful and rugged scenes of the Ozarks. His agenda was to emphasize practical Christianity that he had proposed in his first novel, "That Printer of Udell's." With publication of "The Shepherd of the Hills," the novel received from the American public a thunderous applause. Everyone had fallen in love with the Ozarks, Branson, and the nearby area. They wanted a closer look at the people and the country depicted in the story. From that moment on, people poured into Branson and the Ozarks by the tens of thousands. William Lyon Phelps, Professor of English at Yale University, summed up Harold Bell Wright's appeal in these words, "Although many individuals are cruel and selfish, the average person can be easily touched by an imaginary hero or villain - David was instantly stirred by the story of the ewe lamb, yet perhaps at that moment Bathsheba was in the room with her knitting." Harold Bell Wright sold by the millions because he understood human nature, and he told simple stories that appealed to ordinary people.