Harold Bell Wright papers
![Photograph of Landscape, 1925](/sites/default/files/styles/az_large/public/MS%20360_Box%2032_Folder%208_1925_Scrapbook%20photo.jpg?itok=70naVWM7)
Photocopy of a photograph of a landscape from Harold Bell Wright's scrapbook, 1925.
Collection area: Literature
Collection dates: 1890-1946
Collection consists of the papers of Harold Bell Wright. Correspondence, professional writings, and the miscellaneous materials are by or about Harold Bell Wright. There are a limited number of writings by his son Gilbert Wright, aka John Lumbar [sic] [Lebar], including a co-authored novel with his father. The majority of the collection consists of sermons, handwritten manuscripts, and magazine publications written by Harold Bell Wright. The bulk of the correspondence is professional correspondence between Harold Bell Wright and his publishers.
Miscellaneous materials include photographs, newspaper clippings, and ephemera. The photographs are photocopies of a 1925 scrapbook which include photographs of Harold Bell Wright, Mrs. Wright, their home in Tucson, Arizona, and some of their travels. The majority of newspaper clippings, which are also photocopies, relate to Harold Bell Wright. The ephemera consists of printed material and postcards collected by or about Harold Bell Wright.
Harold Bell Wright was America's leading romance author from 1903 to about 1923. It is estimated that of his nineteen books published between 1903 and 1942, as many as ten million copies were sold. Harold Bell Wright was born in Rome, N.Y. to parents William A. and Alma Watson Wright on May 4, 1872. After his mother died when he was ten years old, and his father abandoned him, he lived several years with various relatives and strangers, working for shelter and scraps of food. Wright attended Hiram College in Hiram, Ohio until the late 1890s when he was forced to leave school to combat a serious illness. He relocated to Missouri where he regained his health and started his preaching career. From 1897 to 1908 he served as a minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). His preaching took him to Pierce City, Missouri; Pittsburg, Kansas; Kansas City, Missouri; Lebanon, Missouri; and lastly to Redlands, California. In 1902 Wright wrote his first book,
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