Parnassus on Wheels

Christopher Morley (1890-1957) was an American poet, novelist, essayist, and journalist. He attended Oxford as a Rhodes scholar. He worked at Doubleday as a publicist and publisher's assistant. Morley was one of the first judges for The Book of The Month Club. Parnassus on Wheels is the story of an adventuresome man who travels through New England in 1915 on his bookwagon, hoping to enlighten numerous communities. He becomes involved in many roadside brawls and heroic escapes in the process.

Christopher Morley (1890 - 1957) was an American journalist, novelist, essayist and poet. He also produced stage productions for a few years and gave college lectures. Morley began writing while still in college. He edited The Haverfordian and contributed articles to that college publication. He provided scripts for and acted in the college's drama program. In Oxford a volume of his poems, The Eighth Sin (1912), was published. After graduating from Oxford, Morley began his literary career at Doubleday, working as publicist and publisher's reader. In 1917 he got his start as an editor for Ladies' Home Journal (1917-1918), then as a newspaper reporter and newspaper columnist in Philadelphia for the Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger. Morley's first novel, Parnassus on Wheels, appeared in 1917. The protagonist, traveling bookseller Roger Mifflin, appeared again in his second novel, The Haunted Bookshop in 1919. In 1920 Morley returned to New York City to write a column (The Bowling Green) for the New York Evening Post. Author of more than 100 novels, books of essays and volumes of poetry, Morley is probably best known for his 1939 novel Kitty Foyle, which was made into an Academy Award-winning movie. Another well-known work is Thunder on the Left (1925).