Release date is 2026-02-20

Susan E., Terry Jeffress, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)

"Harry's newspaper" by Stephen Angus Douglas Cox is a juvenile adventure novel written in the early 20th century. It follows Harry Weston, an enterprising orphan who starts a small-town paper in a Colorado coal community, blending straightforward printing know-how with a coming-of-age business story. The likely focus is on building The Coalville News, winning advertisers and readers, and navigating local tensions, including a labor dispute, as Harry tests his grit and ethics.

At the start of the story, Harry loses his father, recalls the printing skills he learned while caring for an uncle, borrows a small stake from his sister, and buys a modest press and type on credit in Denver. He moves to Coalville, rents a cheap upstairs room above a grocery, and—helped by friendly townspeople like station agent Garland, carpenter Merwin, and others—sets up his shop, solicits ads, and begins composing type; he reconnects with Elsie Merwin, joins her church choir, and hires young Tommy Warner to help. Detailed, practical scenes show him arranging cases, leads, slugs, quoins, rollers, and “ready print,” as he prepares the inaugural issue. A crisis emerges when mine manager Morgan brings in cheaper foreign labor and fires local miners; Harry investigates, writes a firm but measured protest as the paper’s lead, prints and distributes the first issue, and earns strong community support. The opening closes with Morgan acknowledging the town’s backlash and “thinking it over,” while Harry gauges what the business community will do next. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Originally published: Chicago: Albert Whitman & Co., 1930