Evening Star Newspaper, December 28, 1930, Page 77

THE - SUNDAY: ‘STAR, -WASHING1ON, D. C.,, :DECEMBER @, 1930. 11 ° o 4 3 s \ 4 HAROLD BELL WRIGHT'S NVew Year RESOLUTIO i In the guest house: A separate building where visitors revel in the native In- dian art which fills the rooms with beauty. BY OREN ARNOLD. AROLD BELL WRIGHT, whose books have been bought by more than 10,000,000 people- and who, besides being one of the most popular living novelists, is some- thing of a minister as well, has some ideas which should fit admirably into this country’s + New Year day thinking. First of all, he has an idea that the American people in 1931 might well do a bit less of making resolutions and™a bit more of seeing them through. For it becomes a ridiculous gesture to make sol>mn vows on January 1 and start laughing at them on January 2. On this New Year day, too, we might take advantage of the lull in dollar chasing, turn the searchlight inward for a spell and see what can be found. Possibly we could start something infinitely greater than just patching up individual morals that are in ill repair. Inside of us, Mr. Wright thinks, is a vast unexplored region, bigger than any of us can amagine, and this may be the year when we can begin probing d2ep into it. Jiist as the world knew for centuries that the Arctic and Antarctic ice continents were there, * but only in recent years has seen any explora~ tion of them, so do we now recognize the trackless regions within the minds and souls of men, and await the Pearys and Amundsens and Byrds who will dare to go in. Putting it, then, on a broader basis, Harold Bell Wright thinks that if the American people were to make just one big resolution for the New Year, here's what it ought to be: Resolved: That I (we) will try to peek a little bit more “under the surface” of me this year, will try to study and understand my spiritual side as distinguished from my physical or material life. ° BU’I‘ Mr. Wright hastens to explain that “spiritual” does not refer Just to “religious” or “churchly” life. A man’s spirit, as he describes it, is the in- tangible, inside part that makes him do things or not do them. It may or may not have directly to do with going to church, although it is tremendously hard to make people under- stand that. People persist in associating the word “spir- itual” with cathedrals, creeds, collars that but- ton beshind and such, whereas it rightly refers to the inner mental or emotional forcz in man, powerful but woefully neglected. And in his suggestion for such a resolution, Mr. Wright certainly did not mean to be goody- goody or “sissy” about it. For this potential spiritual development, he insists, is eminently practical, indeed is inevitable, and we as a nation will be smart if we get on that particular band wagon promptly. For the next great series of discoveries and advancements of the race will not be along scientific lines, Mr. Wright believes, but will be that spiritual development referred to. And this is not just the opinion of one erstwhile Midwestern preacher who, as a writer, hap- pened to reach a success peak—not just one fancy of a man who by profession digs into human hearts and souls. This idea is also a definite prediction by other famous thinkers, among them one of the great- est scientists of all time, the late Dr. Charles FromHisBeautiful Desert Home the Painter-Preacher- Novelist, Whose Followers Are Counted by the Millions, Sends to You This Message forMakingLife Better. medium of popular novels. Perhaps this spir- itual advancement will have its first big mani- festations among the “common” people, the masses who have no claim to fame or fortune. For they it is who have responded to the notes struck in the Harold Bell Wright stories. They in the main are the ones who have planked down $2-each for his books, his 15 or so books which have averaged a sale of 700,000 copies each. Even now Mr. Wright is sitting in his work« shop on the Arizona Desert, preparing his next contribution to what may be called spiritual literature. By that again is not meant religious The word-workshop from which come the books of America’s most popular writer. It was decorated by Mr. Wright himself. P. Steinmetz. It becomes obvious to any who can investigate or gauge the trend of DHuman affairs. Perhaps this spiritual renaissance—if it may be labeled in such big words—will be a result of national demand, unspoken maybe, but felt by all of us. Most of the great advancements in the history of the race have come through research and study inspired by definite needs. FOR the need is certainly apparent. Mr. Wright has bzen catering fo it in what he calls his humbl> way for 30 years, through the or theological writing, although “I am going to talk about God,” he says. In that book, for which he has been years gathering material and which he often is mulling around in his head, Harold Bell Wright hopes to make clear to his huge audience exactly the distinction between man’s spiritual and physical beings, hopes to dissociate from church walls and dogmas the finer, more potent thing that is our inner selves. An open-minded attitude toward it and a determination to follow up this recognition of latent spiritual power, says Mr. Wright, might Blending into the desert, appropriately built and set, the Wright home is luxurious, but none the less simple, B spot of harmony and beauty. y s L4 Harold Bell Wright, the preacher who uses the novel instead of the pulpit as his rostrum to predict a day of greater spirituality. give rise to unprecedented human happiness, might be a resolution for 1931 which would be more than an annual stunt forgotten as promptly as formed. 1 Harold Bell Wright now is approaching the age when he is qualified to sum up the spiritual needs of a nation. He is nearly 60—58 to be exact—and for 30 years of that he has ac- curately gauged the tastes of the multitudes in things to read. And if we harken to thé sages, a man who understands a peopie’s taste in literature is most likely to see into their souls. This tall native of Rome, N. Y., who suc- Cessively was a sign painter, decorator, land- scape painter and finally a preacher in the Christian Church, has never departed from his original purpose of being a minister. He no longer occupies a pulpit, as he did for some years. But he has a broader ministry which enables him to reach many, many times more people than he ever could have reached as a conventional parson. His entry into this broader ministry of writ- ing was quite accidental. He was preaching in a fast-growing town filled with young people, and he deplored the town’s lack of facilities for wholesome social intercourse. He broached the idea of opening his church seven days a week as a sort of social center to compete with the saloons and bawdy houses that were all too common then. But the idea was little short of heresy to his controlling church board and he made no prog- ress with his plan. So he set about to awaken his townsmen through the medium of fiction. He wrote “That Printer of Udells” with the intention of reading it to his congregation, taking his characters from among his parish- ioners, scoffing in it at certain hide-bound traditions that had become useless, poking a little fun and doubtless expecting to shock a few hearers. It was intended primarily for his parishloners. He did so read it, and did so shock a few. But some others were impressed with the worth of the book and prevailed upon him to offer it for publication. It was accepted and had rather a good sale. Returns from it literally startled him, says Mr. Wright, and by returns he does not mean just financial income. Because people " began to talk apd write and call and generally show an interest in the things he had said. TTHE success of that accidental attempt sug- gested to Mr. Wright that he might, con- ceivably, reach a much larger audience regu: larly through the pen. So he deliberately tried to write a second saleable book that embodied some more of his ideas of a sincere ministry. “The Shepherd of the Hills” was the out- come, and to this day it remains one of his best liked books. Thenceforth be devoted his entire energies to writing, forsaking the speaking pulpit entirely. He was interrupted at onhe juncture by a long slege of ill health. But he and Mrs. Wrigh¢ moved into a cabin in Southern Arizona, almost - invisible alongside. the majesty of the blue-hued Santa Catalina Mountains, where the air was dry and mild the year round. There he cone quered the malady which had attacked him, and while doing so he gave the world another * best seller. There too, he evolved a permanent love for the austere hills and the desert, a raw-boned sort of Nature who reveals her delicacies and beauties only to those who will stay and see and expand into the broadness of her. He still lives there, a few miles from Tucson, in a beautiful home now instead of a cabin, bus in a home carefully built to emphasize the full measure of beauty and inspiration the country affords. From there now come the Harold Bell Wright novels. 12 e First drafts of the Wright novels now come from what he calls his shop. A visitor to the Wright home may at first confuse this shop . with a true workshop which Mr. Wright really - does have. : s 4 In the latter he is a craftsman in wrought irom, carpentry and wood carving, and there mast satisfacto: But in his Continued on Fourteenth Page