Lloyd C. Douglas Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Lloyd C. Douglas
Lloyd C. Douglas was born in Columbia City, Indiana on August 27, 1877. He spent parts of his childhood in Wilmot, Indiana, Monroeville, Indiana, and Florence, Kentucky, where his dad (Alexander Jackson Douglas) was the pastor of the Hopeful Lutheran Church.

Lloyd was married to Bessie Porch, and they had two kids Bessie J and Virginia V Douglas.

After he got the AM degree from Wittenberg College in 1903, he was ordained in the Lutheran ministry. He served pastorates in Lancaster, Ohio, North Manchester, Indiana, and Washington, D. C.

From 1911 until 1915, he was the director of religious work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. For the next six years, he was the minister of The First Congregational Church in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and from there he moved to Akron, Ohio, and from 1920 until 1926 served as the Sr. Minister of the First Congregational Church of Akron. Then he moved to Los Angeles, and lastly to St. James United Church in Montreal, Quebec, and it was from this pulpit he decided to retire in order to start writing fiction.

“Magnificent Obsession” was published in 1929, when Lloyd was fifty years old, and was immediately a huge success. It was adapted into two movies. The first starred Irene Dunne and Robert Taylor released in 1935, with the other coming out in 1954 with Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson.

“Green Light” was made into a movie that starred Errol Flynn in 1937. The next year, Claude Raines and Fay Bainter starred in “White Banners”. And the movie version of “Disputed Passage” came out in 1939. “Dr. Hudson’s Secret Journal”, which was a prequel to “The Magnificent Obsession”, aired on syndicated television in 1955-1957, and starred John Howard as Dr. Wayne Hudson.

Lloyd had his own unhappy experience of filming, which prompted him (once he produced “The Big Fisherman” as a sequel to “The Robe”) to stipulate the story would be his final novel and that he’d not allow it to get made into a movie, serialized, condensed in any way, or used over the radio. The story was eventually adapted, with Howard Keel starring in the movie version of his book, which was released in 1959.

Even though Lloyd sold the movie rights to “The Robe”, which sold two million copies, the movie (starring Richard Burton) didn’t come out until 1953, after Lloyd had died.

His final book was “Time To Remember”, an autobiography, which described his life from his childhood and education for the ministry. However he died before he could write his intended second volume. His daughters Betty and Virginia finished this task in “The Shape of Sunday”.

He died in Los Angeles, California on February 13, 1951 at the age of 73. He is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

“The Magnificent Obsession” is the first stand alone novel and was released in 1929. Robert Merrick’s life gets saved at the expense of an eccentric yet adored surgeon’s life, this carefree playboy is forced to reevaluate his own personal path. Merrick goes on this course of anonymous philanthropy, inspired by reading the doctor’s private papers.

A dramatic and engaging story about private sacrifice and personal redemption, this is a spiritual story which has served as an inspiration for both screen and stage.

Lloyd has a large vocabulary and readers found they were learning new words, while reading. The novel explores belief in Jesus and spirituality of the lead character after navigating life after his near death experience.

“White Banners” is the first stand alone novel and was released in 1936. “White Banners” is set in 1919, in a small Indiana town. On a cold, dreary, and snowy day, Hannah Parmalee, a peddler, shows up at the door of this kind couple, Paul Ward and Marcia (his wife), and is selling apple peelers. Mrs. Ward asks her to come in and get warm, and Hannah can tell they are struggling financially and are in need of domestic help. So she offers her services to them and becomes their housekeeper and cook in exchange for room and board.

Mr. Ward is a science teacher by day and an inventor by night trying to create something which is going to provide enough money for Marcia, Sally (their teen daughter), and their new baby, so they can have some luxuries in life.

Hannah, who’s extremely helpful and wise, comes up with a few good ideas. She persuades Ward to sell useless and old furniture in order to raise money and make some room for his work down in the basement.

An “iceless icebox”, one of Ward’s inventions, is unintentionally revealed by Peter to some local brother mechanics, Joe Ellis and Bill. When the Ellis brothers steal it from them and patent it, Peter feels so bad about what he went and did that he lies to Ward when asked about it. Meanwhile, Sally comes down with pneumonia.

“The Robe” is the first novel in “The Robe ” series and was released in 1942. Marcellus, a Roman soldier, wins Christ’s robe as a gambling prize. Then he sets forth on this quest to learn the truth about the Nazarene’s robe, it’s a quest which reaches to the very heart and roots of Christianity and it is set against the vividly limned backdrop of ancient Rome.

Here’s a timeless tale of faith, adventure, and romance, a story about ultimate redemption and spiritual longing.

“The Big Fisherman” is the second novel in “The Robe” series and was released in 1948. It was a calm and early summer noon in the southern mountains of Arabia. Hunkering down in the King’s well guarded domain, one mile up and a dozen miles east of the Dead Sea, these motionless masses of neighborly white clouds hung suspended from this isolated blue ceiling.

There’d been an unusually heavy snowfall during the winter, not just upon the land of the King, however throughout the whole country. It was going to be quite the prosperous season for everyone. Intertribal jangling would also be reduced to a minimum.