Please welcome the newest member of my book family. A Western with a lovely cover, it’s at least mildly appropriate that I bought it at the State Fair. Note: The Antique Barn is next to the building where they display chickens, ducks, turkeys, and rabbits.

The Winning of Barbara Worth by Harold Bell Wright. It was first published in 1911.

Fifteen years later, it was turned into a silent film starring Vilma Banky, Ronald Colman, and a fresh upstart named Gary Cooper in his first substantive role (but more on that another day).

“Not a line of Jefferson Worth’s countenance changed as the tall surveyor, pushing his way through the crowd about the new arrivals, greeted him. But Abe Lee felt the man from behind his gray mask reaching out to grasp his innermost thoughts and emotions.”-The Winning of Barbara Worth, Harold Bell Wright