First Edition

Appleton, 1932, red, (1) on last page, light orange dust jacket with black and red illustration on front.

List of editions

Value Guide

Background

By Harold Bell Wright and his son, Gilbert Munger Wright, who used the pen name John Lebar. Wright did a lot to help his sons establish successful careers. He undoubtedly did the most, and agonized the most, trying to help Gilbert become successful as a writer and producer. Speculation that Gilbert wrote the entire book while Dad added only his name to help it sell better is not true. In a letter to his son, Norman, dated February 10, 1944, Wright offered these details:

Collecting

This was Wright's second book to sell very few copies, making it one of the "furious five" rare titles today. After an unusually large number of unsold copies were returned by dealers, net sales totaled 9,639, including reprints and foreign editions. All American first editions were published by Appleton, who always included a printing number on the last page of the book. Printing numbers higher than (1) are considered less desirable by collectors than first printings. Reprints were also published by Burt. In the 1990s Yestermorrow produced reprints for Barbara Berry's Bookshop. These Yestermorrow copies show up frequently on eBay.

What is this Book About?

Wright was an idealist. He believed in the natural goodness of ordinary people. But he also recognized evil. His stories feature ordinary people following the good old ways of love, service to others, honesty and hard work, triumphing over evil people who ignore, or scorn, the good of others in order to gain money, prestige or power.

In the Devil's Highway, Wright and son launch a scathing attack on scientism. It is probably fair to say this book is an attack on Nazism, Fascism and Communism, all of which were taking root during Wright's most productive years. Scientism is the believe that hard science trumps all other sciences, sentimentalities and spiritual values. With the recent emergence and rapid development of automobiles, telephones, airplanes and hundreds of other conveniences, the emergence of modern medicine, and the broad acceptance of Darwin's evolutionary ideas and Freud's cause and affect explanations of human character and behavior, many educated people around the world were concluding that science would usher in an age of world-wide prosperity and peace. And this optimism was not limited to physical sciences. Many believed that criminals, the mentally ill and even lazy people could be studied scientifically, the causes of their undesirable behavior could be found, and scientifically determined treatments could fix them. As a result, prisons became "correctional facilities" and insane asylums became "sanitariums."

But there is a price for everything, and scientism was no exception. Correcting criminals required first taking away their freedom, then applying therapies whether they wanted them or not. Fixing mental illness sometimes required lobotomies and shock therapy, whether the afflicted person wanted such treatment or not. And some people believed that universal human advancement would happen only after the masses gave up things like religion, love, patriotism and other prejudices and sentimentality. This might be accomplished through education or coercion.

But would happen if Scientism was taken to its logical conclusion? Would we really want to live in a world controlled only by scientific progress?  Today we answer that question with historical examples: ethnic cleansings, gas chambers, labor camps, politically motivated sterilizations, and medical experiments on expendable people. In other words, Wright was right; the things he said would happen, soon happened. And they were ugly.

In The Devil's Highway, several years before Hitler, Wright showed what science would produce if not used under the constraint of traditional values: despots and victims. And along the way he unmasks the intellectuals and scientists who pretend to be interested in the good of humanity but are really interested in absolute control over the masses. Wright's scientists, whose only goal was to produce desirable results, end up producing what is best for themselves. And the relationships of the scientists are based on lies, misunderstandings, betrayals and murders--whatever will produce the desired result.

Real beauty, fulfillment and salvation come from good people with old fashioned values. That is the message of The Devil's Highway.

The story seems rather complicated, but isn't. There are three main characters or groups of characters. Simple goodness is represented by Alma, the loving daughter of a scientist. She respects science, but values loving relationships and truth more. Evil is represented by a succession of scientists, each of whom thinks they are in control. But eventually each is shown to be a puppet of some more powerful scientist. Finally we get to the real center of evil, Dr. Munsker, who lives and works under a mountain in Arizona. And third, there is Fred Ramsey, the center of the story. He loves Alma, but is attracted to Scientism. In the end Fred surrenders to scientism and is destroyed by it, before being miraculously rescued by Alma. And, also in the end, we see that Dr. Munsker was really just the puppet of a supernatural evil, perhaps what we might call the Devil.

Review of Book by Dr. Joyce Kinkead  Copyright 1979 by Joyce Kinkead.  Used by Permission

          In 1932, the same year that Ma Cinderella was published, Wright and his son Gilbert (John Lebar) produced The Devil's Highway, a different kind of book for Wright.  Just as he uses labor and art in Helen of the Old House and The Eyes of the World, The Devil's Highway represents his one attempt at using science as a subject.  Continue >>>

• Seventeenth book:  Ma Cinderella

• Top of Page