Lloyd C. Douglas
| Lloyd C. Douglas | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Doya C. Douglas August 27, 1877 Columbia City, Indiana |
| Died |
February 13, 1951 (aged 73) Los Angeles, California |
| Resting place | Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery |
| Alma mater | Wittenberg College |
| Occupation | minister, author |
| Notable work | The Robe, The Big Fisherman, Magnificent Obsession |
| Spouse(s) | Bessie L Porch |
| Children | Bessie L. Douglas, Virginia V Douglas |
Lloyd Cassel Douglas (August 27, 1877 – February 13, 1951) born Doya C. Douglas, was an American minister and author. He was born in Columbia City, Indiana, spent part of his boyhood in Monroeville, Indiana, Wilmot, Indiana and Florence, Kentucky, 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. They employed a cook, Ms. Josephine Somach. He died in Los Angeles, California.
Douglas was one of the most popular American authors of his time, although he did not write his first novel until he was 50.
After receiving the A.M. degree from Wittenberg College (Now Wittenberg University) in Springfield, Ohio, in 1903, Douglas was ordained in the Lutheran ministry. He served in pastorates in North Manchester, Indiana, Lancaster, Ohio, and Washington, D.C.. From 1911 to 1915, he was director of religious work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The next six years, he was minister of The First Congregational Church in Ann Arbor, Michigan, from there moving to Akron, Ohio, and serving as the Sr. Minister of the First Congregational Church of Akron from 1920–26 then to Los Angeles, California and finally to St. James United Church in Montreal, Quebec, from which pulpit he retired to write. His biographer, Louis Sheaffer, comments, "he never stated publicly why he changed denominations."
His written works were of a moral, didactic, and distinctly religious tone. His first novel, Magnificent Obsession, published in 1929, was an immediate and sensational 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.
Douglas then wrote Forgive Us Our Trespasses; Precious Jeopardy; Green Light; White Banners; Disputed Passage; Invitation To Live; Doctor Hudson's Secret Journal; The Robe, and The Big Fisherman. The Robe sold more than 2 million copies, without any reprint edition. Douglas sold the motion picture rights to this story, though the film, 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 was filmed in 1959, starring Howard Keel 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 is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.
References
- Douglas, Lloyd C (1951), Time to Remember, Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
- Dawson, VD; Wilson, BD (1952), The Shape of Sunday: An Intimate Biography of Lloyd C Douglas (by his daughters).
- Lentz, H Max (1902), A History of the Lutheran Churches in Boone County, Kentucky, together with Sketches of the Pastors Who Have Served Them, York, PA: Anstadt & Sons, pp. 80–83.
- Sheaffer, Louis, "Lloyd Cassel Douglas", Dictionary of American Biography, pp. 181–82 (Supplement 5).