Here is the journal which ultimately proved the motive force for The Magnificent Obsession, the journal as it was set down by Doctor Hudson himself. One feels that he must have been a real person (or that at any rate, in his fictional being he represented the personification of someone’s experience and thought). Here we learn whence came the power—the inner strength through which he built spiritual, physical and worldly success. Here we trace the various experiments which proved his own theory. And here too we follow his opinion on a world facing much of what our world is facing today. This gives the book not only the customary hypodermic that Doctor Douglas so ably administers, but a timeliness that is not to be ignored. There is no one writing today who can put more punch into a sermon—without making one conscious it is a sermon.—Kirkus Reviews

Lloyd C. Douglas was an American minister and author born in Indiana in 1877. He was married and had two children. He did not write his first novel until the age of 50 but was considered to be one of the most popular writers of his time. His works usually had a moral and religious tone. Two of his best known works were The Robe and The Big Fisherman, which were made into major motion pictures. The Robe, written in 1942, sold over two million copies in hardcover alone. It held the number one position on the New York Times Best Seller list for over a year and remained on the list for an additional two years. The film version of The Robe hit the screen in 1953 and starred Richard Burton.