The Light in the Clearing (Classic Reprint): A Tale of the North Country in the Time of Silas Wright - Softcover

Bacheller, Irving

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1331009014 ISBN 13: 9781331009016

Publisher: Forgotten Books, 2018

Synopsis

A boy’s first harvest becomes a map of growing up in 1831 rural America.

In 1831, Bart Baynes is an orphan living with his Aunt Deel and Uncle Peabody. He tends a watermelon and learns early lessons about family, humility, and the power of community. The book follows his says-and-silences, his questions about life, and his slow, careful steps toward adulthood.

Across the pages, young Bart meets friends, neighbors, and figures who feel larger than life, yet are very human. The story threads together family loyalty, faith, and the pull of a wider world as he learns to steer by his own compass.

• A vivid coming-of-age tale set in a small-town American world.
• Told through a boy’s eyes, with family bonds, community life, and personal growth.
• Encounters with mentors and neighbors illuminate honesty, courage, and self-discovery.
• A richly drawn historical backdrop that grounds a quiet, character-driven journey.

Ideal for readers who enjoy historical fiction focused on youth, resilience, and a close-knit community working toward adulthood.

About this title

About the Author

Born in Pierrepont, New York, Irving Bacheller graduated from St. Lawrence University in 1882 after which he accepted a job with the Daily Hotel Reporter; by 1883 he was working for the Brooklyn Daily Times. Two years later, he established a business to provide specialized articles to the major Sunday newspapers. It was through the Bacheller Syndicate that he brought to American readers the writings of British authors such as Joseph Conrad, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Rudyard Kipling. He also established a working partnership with the young author and journalist Stephen Crane, whose novel The Red Badge of Courage became famous after it appeared in syndication. Several years later, Bacheller hired Crane to act as a war correspondent in Cuba during the insurrection against Spain; on the journey there, Crane's ship foundered off the coast of Florida, and he was stranded on a dinghy for two days. This experience resulted in his short story "The Open Boat". Irving Bacheller began to write fiction, publishing "The Master of Silence" in 1892 and "Still House of O'Darrow" in 1894. Although he was appointed Sunday editor of the New York World in 1898, he soon chose to pursue a full-time career as a fiction writer and two years later left journalism for a while. Writing novels primarily concerned with early American life in the North Country of New York State, in 1900 his novel Eben Holden, subtitled A Tale of the North Country, proved a major success, and was the fourth best-selling novel in the United States in 1900. In 1901 the book was still ranked fifth for the year and his next novel issued that year titled D'ri and I was tenth in annual sales. Sixteen years later, Bacheller's work The Light in the Clearing was the No.2 best-selling book in America and in 1920, A Man for the Ages was fifth. Irving Bacheller died in White Plains, New York in 1950. In recent years, several of his works have been reprinted and a previously unpublished manuscript, titled Lost in the Fog, was published in 1990.

Edition details

• Publisher: Forgotten Books
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1331009014
• ISBN 13: 9781331009016
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 435