Let’s talk Harold Robbins! At one time, Harold was the bestselling author of his time, selling millions of copies. His books made the leap to big screens and small, and the characters he created were played by Hollywood elites.
But don’t think of his work as snapshots frozen in time or trapped in amber like a fossil. His work has transcended the pulpy landscape of fiction in the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s by holding a mirror to human nature. We often don’t like what we see, but we cannot deny that we’re staring at ourselves in his work.
For each re-release of Harold’s books, we’ll be exploring its modern-day relevance.
For this post, let’s talk about Spellbinder.
From the desk of Jann Robbins:
Spellbinder by Harold Robbins is a story of our time.
In the midst of the jungles of Vietnam, Preacher, Harold Robbins’ powerful character in Spellbinder, was trying to save lives, one wound at a time. He loved what Jesus Christ promised… PEACE. After returning home to the chaotic upheaval in the U.S., he wanted to touch the lives of many and Preacher started his movement, but soon, the money, greed, and lust corrupted his beliefs while knowing in his heart the only real truth had to come through and he willingly made an ultimate sacrifice.
Are we, today standing in the shadow of Preacher’s plight? Our country is in the chaos of greed, lust, and corruption, and aren’t we still searching for truth and peace in our fellow man?
Harold Robbins was a visionary who tracked the lives and missteps of the rich and powerful TV evangelical preachers. He saw the extravagant lifestyles that were fueled by the donations of the poor and the masses who were buying a ticket to heaven through a religious dogma of greed. As Preacher stands on the stage before God, he speaks the truth of his God and draws upon himself the wrath of those who believe in their own power.
For more of Harold’s work, visit the Harold Robbins page at Oghma Creative Media.
Visit our Facebook page or leave us a comment below!
Michael Frizell
Michael Frizell hold an MFA in creative nonfiction from the University of Arkansas at Monticello. You can find his work on the National Gallery of Writing, in Red Ink Journal, The Moon City Review, and others, and his poetry featured as part of The Good Men Project. With TidalWave Comics, he writes comics based on the lives of the famous and infamous. His fiction comics include The World of Polka Spot, a children’s story about a world-famous llama and film diva, The Fantasy World of Bettie Page, a Cold War-era sci-fi action graphic novel featuring the authorized likeness of Bettie Page, and James Dean: Timeless, a sci-fi western. He is currently writing the forwards to the re-releases of Harold Robbins’ novels for Oghma Creative Media. His graphic novel, Bender, about the serial killer family of the same name from the Midwest, was serialized in Saddlebag Dispatches. The collected edition will be available in hardcover on September 19, 2018. He lives in Springfield, Missouri with his wife, Julia.
