Background
The first Harold Bell Wright book published by Appleton.
Story of a labor conflict in a mid-western industrial town, but I do not know if
it describes any particular location or situation. A friend of mine who visits
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania often, says Pittsburg obviously fits the description: a
steel mill in a city built next to a river at the foot of (and partly on the
slopes of) mountains. There are steep inclines around Pittsburgh that would fit
Wright's description of a mansion and the Seer's house on top of a hill
overlooking the city. Obviously this would not fit Gary, Indiana or Chicago,
both of which are flat. Of course, the book does not actually say it was a steel
mill, and I know of no evidence that Wright ever visited Pittsburgh, but my
friend's guess does point out some of the characteristics of the city Wright
describes in this book.
Collecting
This title is not nearly as common as the most popular
Book Supply titles, but it is not rare either. All American first
editions are by Appleton. On this, and all
Appletons, the printing number is indicated by a small number in
parenthesis on the last page of the story. The majority of copies
have a (1) in the back. All copies of Helen look faded until you
get used to them, but some really are faded. Reprints were
published by Burt, Ryerson, Hodder and Stoughton, and Thall &
Carlsson. I have never seen any sales
figures for Appleton titles, but judging from the number available today,
there must have been about 400,000 of them.
Review of Book
by Dr. Joyce Kinkead Copyright
1979 by Joyce Kinkead. Used by
Permission.
Three
of Wrights novels--Helen of the Old House, The Eyes of the
World, and The Devil's Highway--qualify more as tracts of
social criticism than as works of fiction.
Helen of the Old House focuses on the labor unrest and
socialist agitation immediately following World War I, while The Eyes
of the World centers around the plight of writers and artists who
become untrue to art in order to gain immediate fame. Wright's 1932 novel, The Devil's Highway, written in
collaboration with his son, Gilbert, concentrates on the possible evils
of science when science is devoid of idealism. Continue >>>
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