Addison Irving Bacheller (1859 --1950) was an American journalist and writer who founded the first modern newspaper syndicate in the United States. Bacheller began to write fiction, publishing "The Master of Silence" in 1892 and "Still House of O'Darrow" in 1894. Although he was appointed Sunday editor of the New York World in 1898, he soon chose to pursue a full-time career as a fiction writer and two years later left journalism for a while. Writing novels primarily concerned with early American life in the North Country of New York State, in 1900 his novel Eben Holden, subtitled A Tale of the North Country, proved a major success, and was the fourth best-selling novel in the United States in 1900. In 1901 the book was still ranked fifth for the year and his next novel issued that year titled D'ri and I was tenth in annual sales. Sixteen years later, Bacheller's work The Light in the Clearing was the No.2 best-selling book in America and in 1920, A Man for the Ages was fifth. In this book: Eben Holden The Light in the Clearing Darrel of the Blessed Isles