Other editions of book The Shepherd of the Hills

Originally published in 1907, The Shepherd of the Hills is Harold Bell Wright's most famous work. In The Shepherd of the Hills, Wright spins a tale of universal truths across the years to the modern-day reader. His Eden in the Ozarks has a bountiful share of life's enchantments, but is not without its serpents. While Wright rejoices in the triumphs, grace, and dignity of his characters, he has not naively created a pastoral fantasyland where the pure at heart are spared life's struggles and pains. Refusing to yield to the oft-indulged temptation of painting for the reader the simple life of country innocents, Wright forthrightly shows the passions and the life-and-death struggles that go on even in the fairest of environments that man invades. The shepherd, an elderly, mysterious, learned man, escapes the buzzing restlessness of the city to live in the backwoods neighborhood of Mutton Hollow in the Ozark hills. There he encounters Jim Lane, Grant Matthews, Sammy, Young Matt, and other residents of the village, and gradually learns to find a peace about the losses he has borne and has yet to bear. Through the shepherd and those around him, Wright assembles here a gentle and utterly masterful commentary on strength and weakness, failure and success, tranquility and turmoil, and punishment and absolution. This tale of life in the Ozarks continues to draw thousands of devotees to outdoor performances in Branson, Missouri, where visitors can also see the cabin where the real Old Matt and Aunt Mollie lived.

Few works of American fiction have proved as enduringly popular as Harold Bell Wrights The Shepherd of the Hills Wrights novel first published in 1907 was an instant best seller by 1918 the book had sold over two million copies the following year it was adapted for the silent screen the first of four cinematic versions and by the mid1920s Wright was established as the most commercially successful American novelist of all time Wrights compelling and moving tale of an outsider who begins a new life in the isolated insulated world of the fictional Mutton Hollow draws on his work as a Protestant pastor and his familiarity with the pioneer culture of homesteaders in the Ozark Mountains region of southern Missouri The novel is both exciting and elegiac mysterious and melodramatic Henry Claridges introduction to this new Wordsworth edition provides an account of the social and historical background to Wrights novel particularly its dramatisation of the changing world of the American frontier

IT was corn-planting time, when the stranger followed the Old Trail into the Mutton Hollow neighborhood. All day a fine rain had fallen steadily, and the mists hung heavy over the valley. The lower hills were wrapped as in a winding sheet; dank and cold. The trees were dripping with moisture. The stranger looked tired and wet. By his dress, the man was from the world beyond the ridges, and his carefully tailored clothing looked strangely out of place in the mountain wilderness. His form stooped a little in the shoulders, perhaps with weariness, but he carried himself with the unconscious air of one long used to a position of conspicuous power and influence; and, while his well-kept hair and beard were strongly touched with white, the brown, clear lighted eyes, that looked from under their shaggy brows, told of an intellect unclouded by the shadows of many years. It was a face marked deeply by pride; pride of birth, of intellect, of culture; the face of a scholar and poet; but it was more--it was the countenance of one fairly staggering under a burden of disappointment and grief. As the stranger walked, he looked searchingly into the mists on every hand, and paused frequently as if questioning the proper course. Suddenly he stepped quickly forward. His ear had caught the sharp ring of a horse's shoe on a flint rock somewhere in the mists on the mountain side above. It was Jed Holland coming down the trail with a week's supply of corn meal in a sack across his horse's back. As the figure of the traveler emerged from the mists, the native checked his horse to greet the newcomer with the customary salutation of the backwoods, "Howdy." The man returned Jed's greeting cordially, and, resting his satchel on a rock beside the narrow path, added, "I am very glad to meet you. I fear that I am lost." The voice was marvelously pure, deep, and musical, and, like the brown eyes, betrayed the real strength of the man, denied by his gray hair and bent form. The tones were as different from the high keyed, slurring speech of the backwoods, as the gentleman himself was unlike any man Jed had ever met. The boy looked at the speaker in wide-eyed wonder; he had a queer feeling that he was in the presence of a superior being.- Taken from "The Shepherd Of The Hills" written by Harold Bell Wright

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to ensure edition identification: ++++ <title> The Shepherd Of The Hills<author> Harold Bell Wright<publisher> The Book supply company, 1909<subjects> Fiction; Christian; General; Fiction / Christian / General; Fiction / Religious

• Two of Harold Bell Wright's classic books are in this Kindle book: The Shepherd of the Hills & its sequel The Calling of Dan MatthewsThe Shepherd of the Hills Set in the Ozarks, the story involves the relationship between Grant Matthews and Dad Howitt, a mysterious man trying to recover from his past, which includes the deaths of his wife and children. The Calling of Dan MatthewsSammy and Young Matt's son, Dan Matthews, becomes the new minister of a Midwestern town called Corinth. He is attracted to another new resident -- a nurse -- but is a romance really in his best interests? Dan is already struggling because he feels the church elders hold too much influence, to the detriment of the congregation. Should he make his life even more complicated?About The Author American author Harold Bell Wright (1872–1944) was reportedly the first American writer to sell a million copies of a novel and the first to make $1 million from writing fiction. Books by Harold Bell Wright include: That Printer of Udell's Book Supply Company, 1902–03 The Shepherd of the Hills Book Supply Company, 1907 The Calling of Dan Matthews Book Supply Company, 1909 The Uncrowned King Book Supply Company, 1910 The Winning of Barbara Worth Book Supply Company, 1911 Their Yesterdays Book Supply Company, 1912 The Eyes of the World Book Supply Company, 1914 When a Man's a Man A.L. Burt Company 1914[4] The Re-Creation of Brian Kent Book Supply Company, 1919 Helen of the Old House D. Appleton and Company, 1921 The Mine with the Iron Door D. Appleton and Company, 1923 A Son of His Father D. Appleton and Company, 1925 God and the Groceryman D. Appleton and Company, 1927 Long Ago Told: Legends of the Papago Indians D. Appleton and Company, 1929 Exit D. Appleton and Company, 1930 The Devil's Highway D. Appleton and Company, 1932 Ma Cinderella Harper and Brothers, 1932 To My Sons Harper and Brothers, 1934 The Man Who Went Away Harper and Brothers, 1942

Originally published in 1907, The Shepherd of the Hills is Harold Bell Wright's most famous work. In The Shepherd of the Hills, Wright spins a tale of universal truths across the years to the modern-day reader. His Eden in the Ozarks has a bountiful share of life's enchantments, but is not without its serpents. While Wright rejoices in the triumphs, grace, and dignity of his characters, he has not naively created a pastoral fantasyland where the pure at heart are spared life's struggles and pains. Refusing to yield to the oft-indulged temptation of painting for the reader the simple life of country innocents, Wright forthrightly shows the passions and the life-and-death struggles that go on even in the fairest of environments that man invades. The shepherd, an elderly, mysterious, learned man, escapes the buzzing restlessness of the city to live in the backwoods neighborhood of Mutton Hollow in the Ozark hills. There he encounters Jim Lane, Grant Matthews, Sammy, Young Matt, and other residents of the village, and gradually learns to find a peace about the losses he has borne and has yet to bear. Through the shepherd and those around him, Wright assembles here a gentle and utterly masterful commentary on strength and weakness, failure and success, tranquility and turmoil, and punishment and absolution. This tale of life in the Ozarks continues to draw thousands of devotees to outdoor performances in Branson, Missouri, where visitors can also see the cabin where the real Old Matt and Aunt Mollie lived.

The man was from the world beyond the ridges, and his carefully tailored clothing looked strangely out of place in the mountain wilderness. His form stooped a little in the shoulders, perhaps with weariness, but he carried himself with the unconscious air of one long used to a position of conspicuous power and influence; and, while his well-kept hair and beard were strongly touched with white, the brown, clear lighted eyes, that looked from under their shaggy brows, told of an intellect unclouded by the shadows of many years. The people of the Ozarks called him The Shepherd of The Hills and only he can heal a division in the community that no one else is even aware of.