Other editions of book The Winning of Barbara Worth

Jefferson Worth's outfit of four mules and a big wagon pulled out of San Felipe at daybreak,headed for Rubio City. From the swinging red tassels on the bridles of the leaders to thegalvanized iron water bucket dangling from the tail of the reach back of the rear axle theoutfit wore an unmistakable air of prosperity. The wagon was loaded only with a wellstocked "grub-box," the few necessary camp cooking utensils, blankets and canvastarpaulin, with rolled barley and bales of hay for the team, and two water barrels—empty.Hanging by its canvas strap from the spring of the driver's seat was a large, cloth-coveredcanteen. Behind the driver there was another seat of the same wide, comfortable type, butthe man who held the reins was apparently alone. Jefferson Worth was not with his outfit.By sending the heavy wagon on ahead and following later with a faster team and a lightbuckboard, Mr. Worth could join his outfit in camp that night, saving thus at least anotherhalf day for business in San Felipe. Jefferson Worth, as he himself would have put it,"figured on the value of time." Indeed Jefferson Worth figured on the value of nearlyeverything.Now San Felipe, you must know, is where the big ships come in and the air tingles with theelectricity of commerce as men from all lands, driven by the master passion of humankind—Good Business—seek each his own.But Rubio City, though born of that same master passion of the race, is where the thin edgeof civilization is thinnest, on the Colorado River, miles beyond the Coast Range Mountains,on the farther side of that dreadful land where the thirsty atmosphere is charged with theawful silence of uncounted ages.Between these two scenes of man's activity, so different and yet so like, and crossing thusthe land of my story, there was only a rude trail—two hundred and more hard and lonelymiles of it—the only mark of man in all that desolate waste and itself marked every mile bythe graves of men and by the bleached bones of their cattle.

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Harold Bell Wright (May 4, 1872 – May 24, 1944) was a best-selling American writer of fiction, essays, and nonfiction. Although mostly forgotten or ignored after the middle of the 20th century, he is said to have been the first American writer to sell a million copies of a novel and the first to make $1 million from writing fiction. Between 1902 and 1942 Wright wrote 19 books, several stage plays, and many magazine articles. More than 15 movies were made or claimed to be made from Wright's stories, including Gary Cooper's first major movie, The Winning of Barbara Worth (1926) and the John Wayne film The Shepherd of the Hills (1941).In 1902, while pastoring the Christian Church in Pittsburg, Kansas, he wrote a melodramatic story, entitled That Printer of Udell's, which he intended to read to his congregation, one chapter per week, at successive Sunday night meetings. But before he read it to his congregation, the story was published in serial form in The Christian Century, his denomination's official journal. Wright despised the magazine version so much that he "hid the poor mutilated corpse in the bottom of the least used drawer of my desk and moved on to other things" (To My Sons, p. 213). But parishioners enjoyed the story so much that they encouraged him to publish it in book form, which he did. But it was Wright's second novel, The Shepherd of the Hills, published in 1907 and set in Branson, Missouri, that established him as a best-selling author. That book also attracted a growing stream of tourists to the little-known town of Branson, resulting in its becoming a major tourist destination.In 1905 Wright accepted the position of pastor at the Christian Church in Lebanon, Missouri. Wright remained there until 1907 when he accepted another pastoral position in California. In that same year, after the success of The Shepherd of the Hills (his first book to sell one million copies), Wright resigned as pastor of the Redlands, California, Christian Church, moved to a ranch near El Centro, California, and devoted the rest of his life to writing popular stories. In 1911, he published his most popular book, The Winning of Barbara Worth, a historical novel set in the Imperial Valley of southeastern California.Wright was motivated to leave the ministry because he realized he could make more money writing fiction. In most of his novels, beginning with That Printer of Udell's, he attacked the hypocrisy and impractical nature of popular churches. To Wright, hard work, integrity and concrete efforts to aid people in need were far more important than church doctrines or sermons.Wright never responded to his critics, except to say that he never intended to create great literature, only to minister to ordinary people. (wikipedia.org)