Lloyd Cassel Douglas (August 27, 1877 – February 13, 1951) was an American minister and author. Douglas was one of the most popular American authors of his time, although he did not write his first novel until he was 50.

Biography

He was born in

Columbia City, Indiana Columbia City is a city in Columbia Township, Whitley County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 9,892 (2020 Census), growing by 13% since the 2010 Census. The city is the county seat of Whitley County. History The Whitley Count ...

, spending part of his boyhood in

Monroeville, Indiana Monroeville is a town in Monroe Township, Allen County, Indiana, United States. The population was 1,235 as of the 2010 census. History Monroeville was platted in 1851. It was named from Monroe Township. A post office was established at Monroevi ...

Wilmot Wilmot may refer to: Places Australia *Division of Wilmot, an abolished Australian Electoral Division in Tasmania * Wilmot, Tasmania, a locality in the North-West Region Canada *Wilmot, Nova Scotia, an unincorporated rural community and former t ...

, Indiana and

Florence, Kentucky Florence is a home rule-class city in Boone County, Kentucky, United States. Florence is the second largest city located in Northern Kentucky, after Covington, and part of the Greater Cincinnati Metropolitan Area. The population was 31,946 a ...

, where his father, Alexander Jackson Douglas, was pastor of the Hopeful Lutheran Church. According to the 1910 Census Douglas was listed as a Lutheran clergyman. He was married to Bessie I. Porch. They had two children: Bessie J. Douglas, 4 at the time and Virginia V Douglas, 2 at the time. After receiving the A.M. degree from Wittenberg College (now

Wittenberg University Wittenberg University is a private liberal arts college in Springfield, Ohio. It has 1,326 full-time students representing 33 states and 9 foreign countries. Wittenberg University is associated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America ...

) in Springfield, Ohio, in 1903, Douglas was ordained in the

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched ...

ministry. He served in pastorates in North Manchester, Indiana,

Lancaster, Ohio Lancaster ( ) is a city in Fairfield County, Ohio, in the south-central part of the state. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 40,552. The city is near the Hocking River, about southeast of Columbus and southwest of Zanesville. It is ...

, and Washington, D.C. From 1911 to 1915, he was director of religious work at the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Un ...

. The next six years, he was minister of ''The First Congregational Church'' in

Ann Arbor, Michigan Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County. The 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851. It is the principal city of the Ann Arbor Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all ...

, from there moving to

Akron, Ohio Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 Census, the city ...

, and serving as the Sr. Minister of the First Congregational Church of Akron from 1920 to 1926, then to Los Angeles, California, and finally to St. James United Church in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...

, from which pulpit he retired to write. His biographer, Louis Sheaffer, comments, "he never stated publicly why he changed denominations." His first novel, ''

Magnificent Obsession ''Magnificent Obsession'' is a 1929 novel by American author Lloyd C. Douglas. It was one of four of his books that were eventually made into blockbuster motion pictures, the other three being '' The Robe'', '' White Banners'' and ''The Big Fisher ...

'', published in 1929, was an immediate success. Critics held that his type of fiction was in the tradition of the great religious writings of an earlier generation, such as '' Ben-Hur'' and '' Quo Vadis''. ''Magnificent Obsession'' was adapted for the screen twice, first in 1935 in a film starring Robert Taylor and

Irene Dunne Irene Dunne (born Irene Marie Dunn; December 20, 1898 – September 4, 1990) was an American actress who appeared in films during the Golden Age of Hollywood. She is best known for her comedic roles, though she performed in films of other gen ...

, and in 1954, with

Rock Hudson Rock Hudson (born Roy Harold Scherer Jr.; November 17, 1925 – October 2, 1985) was an American actor. One of the most popular movie stars of his time, he had a screen career spanning more than three decades. A prominent heartthrob in the Gold ...

and

Jane Wyman Jane Wyman ( ; born Sarah Jane Mayfield; January 5, 1917 – September 10, 2007)"Actress, P ...

. Douglas then wrote ''Forgive Us Our Trespasses''; ''Precious Jeopardy''; '' Green Light''; '' White Banners''; ''

Disputed Passage ''Disputed Passage'' is a 1939 American drama war film directed by Frank Borzage and starring Dorothy Lamour, Akim Tamiroff, John Howard, Judith Barrett and William Collier, Sr. Set in war-torn China, the film was described by ''The New York Ti ...

''; '' Invitation To Live''; '' Doctor Hudson's Secret Journal''; ''

The Robe ''The Robe'' is a 1942 historical novel about the Crucifixion of Jesus, written by Lloyd C. Douglas. The book was one of the best-selling titles of the 1940s. It entered the ''New York Times'' Best Seller list in October 1942, four weeks later ...

'', and ''The Big Fisherman'', In 1937, '' Green Light'' was made into a film starring

Errol Flynn Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn (20 June 1909 – 14 October 1959) was an Australian-American actor who achieved worldwide fame during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles, freque ...

. White Banners, starring

Claude Raines William Claude Rains (10 November 188930 May 1967) was a British actor whose career spanned almost seven decades. After his American film debut as Dr. Jack Griffin in '' The Invisible Man'' (1933), he appeared in such highly regarded films as ' ...

and

Fay Bainter Fay Okell Bainter (December 7, 1893 – April 16, 1968) was an American film and stage actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for ''Jezebel'' (1938) and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Early life Bainter wa ...

, came to the screen in 1938. The film of

was released in 1939. '' Dr. Hudson's Secret Journal'' , a prequel to The Magnificent Obsession, aired on syndicated television in 1955-1957.

John Howard John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007, holding office as leader of the Liberal Party. His eleven-year tenure as prime minister is the ...

starred as Dr. Wayne Hudson in 78 episodes. ''The Robe'' sold more than 2 million copies, without any reprint edition. Douglas sold the motion picture rights to ''The Robe'', though the

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmospher ...

, starring Richard Burton, was not released until 1953, after Douglas's death. His own unhappy experience of filming prompted Douglas, when he produced ''The Big Fisherman'' as the sequel to ''The Robe'', to stipulate that ''The Big Fisherman'' would be his last novel and that he would not permit it to be made into a motion picture, used over the radio, condensed, or serialised. Eventually, ''

The Big Fisherman ''The Big Fisherman'' is a 1959 American historical drama film directed by Frank Borzage about the life of Simon Peter, one of the disciples of Jesus. Starring Howard Keel, Susan Kohner and John Saxon, the production is adapted from the 194 ...

'' was filmed in 1959, starring

Howard Keel Harold Clifford Keel (April 13, 1919November 7, 2004), known professionally as Howard Keel, was an American actor and singer, known for his rich bass-baritone singing voice. He starred in a number of MGM musicals in the 1950s and in the CBS te ...

in one of his few non-singing screen roles as Peter. His last book was the autobiographical ''Time To Remember'' which described his life up to his childhood and education for the ministry. He died before he was able to write the intended second volume, but the task was completed in ''The Shape of Sunday'' by his daughters, Virginia Douglas Dawson and Betty Douglas Wilson. Douglas died in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

. He is buried in

Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks & Mortuaries is an American corporation that owns and operates a chain of cemeteries and mortuaries in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside counties in Southern California. History The company was founded by a group of ...

Glendale, California Glendale is a city in the San Fernando Valley and Verdugo Mountains regions of Los Angeles County, California, United States. At the 2020 U.S. Census the population was 196,543, up from 191,719 at the 2010 census, making it the fourth-larges ...

Works

* ''The Fate Of The Limited'', (1919) * ''Wanted – A Congregation'', (1920) * ''An Affair Of The Heart'', (1922) * ''The Minister's Everyday Life'', (1924) * ''These Sayings Of Mine: An Interpretation Of The Teachings Of Jesus'', (1926) * ''Those Disturbing Miracles'', (1927) * ''Magnificent Obsession'', (1929) * ''Forgive Us Our Trespasses'', (1932) * ''Precious Jeopardy: A Christmas Story'', (1933) * ''The College Student Facing A Muddled World'', (1933) * ''Green Light'', (1935) * ''White Banners'', (1936) * ''Home For Christmas'', (1937) * ''Disputed Passage'', (1939) * ''Dr Hudson's Secret Journal'', (1939) * ''Invitation To Live'', (1940) * ''

'', (1942) * ''The Big Fisherman'', (1948) * ''A Time To Remember'', (1951) * ''The Living Faith: Selected Sermons'', (1955) Source:

References

External links

*
Works by Lloyd C Douglas
a
Project Gutenberg Australia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Douglas, Lloyd C. 1877 births 1951 deaths 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American Lutheran clergy American historical novelists American male novelists Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale) Christian writers Novelists from Indiana Novelists from Ohio People from Allen County, Indiana People from Columbia City, Indiana People from Florence, Kentucky People from North Manchester, Indiana Wittenberg University alumni Writers from Akron, Ohio

Biography

Works

References

Further reading

External links