Last week I gave ya'll a look into Harold Bell Wright's impressive career as America's best-selling author in the period of 1908 going into the 1920s. Much of Wright's success was thanks to his dear friend and publisher, Elsbery Reynolds.
Reynolds, who was the owner of Book Supply Company, met Wright at a revival meeting in Chicago. I'll get into that here in a moment.
Elsbery W. Reynolds was born in Carroll County, Missouri, on February 7, 1868, just south of Chillicothe. He was the third of six children born to Elsberry Reynolds Sr. and Minerva (Smock) Reynolds. In 1888, he married May Miller in Harper, Kansas. They would have two sons.
Reynolds founded the Book Supply Company in Chicago in 1895, owning it for a total of 31 years when he sold it in 1926. It was your typical mail-order bookselling firm.
In the late 1890s, Harold Bell Wright had been based in the Missouri Ozarks, and had already met the Rosses who were living just south of Garber in Taney County. In 1898, Wright accepted a five-year pastorate at the First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Pittsburg, Kansas.
Wright traveled to Chicago for a revival meeting at the Jackson Boulevard Christian Church sometime around December 1901 into January 1902. This is where Elsbery Reynolds met Wright. Reynolds recalled, "Mr. Wright delivered a sermon entitled Sculptors of Life that was so impressive that I sought him out with entreaties to repeat his sermon as a lecture to a certain company of young people."
The two became instant friends and would remain in touch. It was while Wright was in Pittsburg that his congregation took interest in a series of sermons he had written describing hypocrisy in the Church. Soon his congregation suggested he publish it as a written work. During their Sunday night meetings, Wright had read his chapters on the topic and in 1902 it was published as a series in "The Christian Century," the denomination's official weekly journal.
Wright was not too thrilled with the magazine version of his story as it was heavily cut and edited, but his congregation and personal doctor continued to encourage him to release it in book form. Wright and Elsbery Reynolds would come to a contract agreement and "That Printer of Udell's" was released in 1903, a 468-page book containing 29 chapters. A total of 2,500 first edition copies were printed. Much of the novel was autobiographical, but the readers were unaware of that.
Reynolds was now on his way as a publisher just as Wright was on his way as an author in the ministry of print. Their author/publisher relationship continued to build and after Wright's 1907 "The Shepherd of the Hills" instantly sold a million copies, Reynolds suggested that Wright release a completed book manuscript every two years.
The two men would work together until 1919 with a total of nine books, and work in the movie production business until 1922. Reynolds would spend thousands of dollars in promoting each of Wright's novels. This is truly what contributed to Wright's success as an author making him a household name all across the country.
In 1912 Reynolds and his family left Chicago, moving to Pomona, California. They built a home in Relay Heights and soon Elsbery would get involved in automotive sales as a Studebaker dealer, and he would continue publishing Wright's novels.
Wright and his family had relocated to Redlands, California, in early 1907. This definitely helped in their business relationship, being located closer together, even though Reynolds believed Wright and his family needed to be based in Chicago or New York as all major publishers were based there.
Reynolds, to my knowledge, was an author to a certain extent, he just wasn't that well known. In August 1916, he wrote and published a small twenty-page booklet, "Harold Bell Wright—A Biography." His most well-known release, which came out in the 1920s was an interesting book of poetry about Studebaker cars, entitled "AutoLine o-Type." This book often shows up on eBay, and occasionally signed copies can be located.
The New York Times printed this short piece announcing Reynolds' passing, January 13, 1943. Here it is in its entirety.
Elsbery W. Reynolds, who become publisher of Harold Bell Wright's novels after a chance meeting with the author, is dead. He was 74 years old. Mr. Reynolds, who formerly lived in Chicago, died Wednesday night.
In Chicago, Louis N. Black, owner of the Book Supply Company, and formerly an assistant to Mr. Reynolds when the latter was President of the concern, said that Mr. Reynolds was so completely sold on Mr. Wright's novels, that he spent $100,000 in advertising on each of his six or seven of his works published here.
Mr. Reynolds not only took full-page newspaper and magazine advertisements promoting the author's works but he resorted to the direct mail method, circulating promotional material among bankers, teachers, and ministers throughout the nation.
"Wright," said Mr. Black, "was unheard of until Mr. Reynolds published Wright's first novel, 'That Printer of Udell's' in 1903. As a result of his advertising methods, he sold millions of Wright's books."
There you have it—the great Elsbery Reynolds. He remained based in Pomona, California, until his passing, and was laid to rest at Pomona Valley Memorial Park.
Happy trails to ya'll.
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