That Printer of Udell’s

Harold Bell Wright (1872–1944) was a bestselling American writer of fiction, essays, and nonfiction during the first half of the twentieth century. Although mostly forgotten or ignored after the middle of the 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. More than twenty-one movies were made or claimed to have been made from his stories, including Gary Cooper’s first major movie, The Winning of Barbara Worth, and the John Wayne film The Shepherd of the Hills. The author’s religious practices first led him to write, and all of his books address particular problems. Behind all of his works lies the simple desire to write about the goodness of mankind.

Richard Powers has published thirteen novels. He is a MacArthur Fellow and received the National Book Award. His book, The Overstory, won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction.