Helen of the Old House was published by D. Appleton in 1921, and it is Wright’s most direct engagement with the labor question — the great social issue of the early twentieth century. The novel is set in a Midwest industrial town (based on Wright’s observations of factory communities) where the conflict between workers and owners has reached a dangerous pitch.
Helen is the daughter of the town’s leading industrialist — a man whose wealth was built on exploitation but who is not a monster, merely someone who has never questioned the system that benefits him. The arrival of a young man with progressive ideas and genuine concern for the workers forces both Helen and her father to confront the human cost of their prosperity.
Wright’s position is characteristic: he rejects both capitalist exploitation and socialist revolution, arguing instead for a middle way based on individual moral transformation. The factory owner must recognize his workers’ humanity; the workers must abandon destructive radicalism; and both sides must find in Christian charity the basis for a just social order. This middle position — too radical for conservatives, too conservative for radicals — was typical of Progressive-era reformism.
Collecting Helen of the Old House
First edition (D. Appleton, New York, 1921): Cloth binding.
Market values:
- First edition in dust jacket: $25–$60
- Without jacket: $5–$15