The Masquerader by Katherine Cecil Thurston 1904 Bestseller Novel

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Title: The Masquerader

Author: Katherine Cecil Thurston

Illustrator: Clarence F. Underwood

Storyline: Political thriller titled John Chilcote, or The Masquerader in the United States. The troubled Chilicote switches identities with a lookalike to escape his problems. All kinds of mishaps ensue as confused wives and girl friends get caught up in political and personal intrigues. (This title was on the New York Times Best Seller list for two years, ranking as the third best-selling book for 1904 and the seventh best-selling in 1905. It was adaped into a broadway play and four different films.)

Copyright: 1904

Publication: 1904

Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap, New York

Format: Green cloth-bound hardcover with embossed design

Page Count: 328

Author Biography:

Thurston, Katherine Cecil. Born Katherine Cecil Madden in Cork, Ireland, daughter of the mayor of Cork. Her Father, also a banker, could afford to have her privately educated. After school, Thurston wrote short stories for a number of UK magazines like Pall Mall Magazine, and Harpers. She married writer Ernest Temple Thurston in 1901, but soon divorced because he was uncomfortable that she had a larger income as a popular writer. Her promising career ended abruptly when she was found dead in a hotel after asphyxiating from an apparent epileptic seizure.



Works include: The Masquerader (1904); The Gambler (1905) - which was a bestseller and first book by any author, female or male, as having two top-ten books in a single year; and Max (1910) - which was also a best seller.

David the King by Gladys Schmitt Best-Seller Old Testament Novel

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Title:  David the King

Author:  Gladys Schmitt

Illustrator:  Cathal O'Toole (engravings)

Storyline:  The novelization of Old Testament great King David's life was kind of a big deal back in 1946, when already successful first time novelist, Gladys Schmitt, released her second book. Her version of David's story was translated into ten languages, and became a million seller as the main selection of the month for the Literary Guild and the Religious Book Club that year.

As was typical of early 20th Century American commercial literature that might be favored by, or marketed to women, the book was damned with faint praise or outright panned by the critics, but pleased readers with its dramatic and romantic retelling of Biblical events. It is pretty amusing to see Time Magazine's reviewer accuse her (or any author) of being middle brow.

Bad reviews from the literary establishment are not a problem for womens' books fans. David the King passed the word-of-mouth test between readers. Critics didn't cotton to the book's descriptions of maidens with heaving breasts and men clad in nothing but loin cloths, but Gladys Schmitt's audience loved the re-working of this well-known story; one of the tales that made the Bible a best seller!    

Copyright: 1946

Publisher: Dial Press

Format: Cloth-bound hardcover

Page Count: 631SKU: G11-29

Author Biography:

Schmitt, Gladys. (b.1909-d.1972) was a lifelong native of Pittsburgh, PA.  She graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 1932 and went on to work as an editor of Scholastic Magazine in both New York and Pittsburgh before taking an academic position at Carnegie Mellon Institute.  At Carnegie Mellon, she distinguished herself by founding the creative writing there. (Ref: Wiki, Time, Commentary)

Works Include: The Gates of Aulis (1942), David the King (1946, reprinted, 1973), Alexandra (1947), Confessors of the Name (1952), The Persistent Image (1955), A Small Fire (1957), Rembrandt (1961), The Heroic Deeds of Beowulf, Retold (juvenile) (1962), Electra (1965), Boris, the Lopsided Bear (juvenile) (1966), The Godforgotten (1972), Sonnets for an Analyst (1973)