Birthplace of Lloyd C. Douglas
Near Fort Wayne, Indiana
On this site, on the twenty seventh of August, eighteen seventy-seven, Lloyd Cassel Douglas was born. He grew up to become a Lutheran, then Congregational, minister, and he did not write his first novel until he was nearly fifty years old. When he finally did, the books became some of the best selling American fiction of their era.
His novel Magnificent Obsession, published in nineteen twenty-nine, became a runaway hit and was twice made into a Hollywood film. In nineteen forty-two he published The Robe, a story of the Roman soldier who won Christ's garment at the crucifixion. It spent more than a year near the top of the best seller lists and inspired a major motion picture.
Douglas proved that a small town Indiana minister, writing late in life, could speak to millions of readers around the world.
