The Winning of Barbara Worth

A.L. Burt Company, 1911. Hardcover. Fine/Near fine. 8vo. Cootes, F. Graham. Full green cloth with white lettering and pasted on cameo of the heroine, under pictorial jacket featuring the same portrait (by illustrated F. Grahame Cootes), 511 pp. plus ads. Minor discoloration to page edges, DJ has one very small closed tear to top edge, rubbing to panels, but is extraordinarily well preserved. Although not dated by A.L. Burt, this is the latest novel listed on the front flap as well as at the rear of the book, so it was almost certainly within a year or two of the original publication. Scarce in jacket. Harold Bell Wright was the first novelist to sell a million copies of a single title, as well as the first to make a million bucks (there are macroeconomic issues at work here, but it's still quite the achievement.) Barbara Worth was--and still is--one of his most popular works. The 1926 film gave Gary Cooper one of his first major roles, although he didn't get the girl in this one. An historical novel of California's great Imperial Valley & the creation of the Salton Sea.