The Winning of Barbara Worth

Harold Wright was a best-selling American writer of fiction, essays, and non-fiction during the first half of the 20th century. He was the first American author to sell a million copies of a novel and the first to earn a million dollars writing fiction. The Winning of Barbara Worth is a western romance in which the marriage of the adopted daughter of the leading citizen of a Colorado River town is threatened by the mystery of her birth. An excerpt from the beginning reads, "With a crash the heavy brake was set. The team stopped. As the driver half rose and turned to look back he slipped the reins to his left hand and his right dropped to his hip. With a motion too quick for the eye to follow the free arm straightened and the mountain echoed wildly to the loud report of a forty-five. By the side of the road in the rear of the wagon a rattlesnake uncoiled its length and writhed slowly in the dust. Before the echoes of the shot had died away a mad, inarticulate roar came from the depths of the wagon box. The roar was followed by a thick stream of oaths in an unmistakably Irish voice. The driver, who was slipping a fresh cartridge into the cylinder, looked up to see a man grasping the back of the rear seat for support while rising unsteadily to his feet."\