Last week I went searching in the university library for some of the old classics that I read and loved in my teen years. The small mining town I grew up in didn’t have much culture, but it did have a good library that offered me incredible hours of escape into other times and places than my own. I traveled to sixteenth century England and the world of Henry the Eighth, to biblical lands and many other places. They remain vivid in my mind. Sadly, I’ve forgotten authors and titles, but in the stacks filled with old books I found a few! I’ll share some of them on this blog.
Biblical fiction draws me. That must be why I write it. Lloyd C. Douglas published The Robe in 1942, a story of a Roman soldier who found Christ. The book in the library had an inscription dated 1945, given as a gift to a loved one. On the back cover, Douglas wrote about his interest in biblical novels: “My father was a country parson….Father loved to tell stories….they were the old Bible stories, but Father thought of every one in the Bible as alive, and he made them seem alive…..Well, I grew up and became a preacher and told stories, but I wanted to write….” I’m so glad he did. My life is enriched because of his stories.
One the front cover of the book was a small square message, written in red: “War has made people eager for books. It has also created a scarcity of paper. Books must be smaller now and thinner than the ones you have been used to. However, on the average such books are not shorter and your dollar buys as much reading matter as it ever has.” The Robe was published during the second world war, described as “a distinguished, disturbing, and exciting novel about another terrible era in history not unlike our own.” Douglas and his readers found perspective on the troubling time they lived in by searching the past. We can do the same. That must be one of many reasons why historical novels are valued.
