Hardback, 1878 Scribner’s Sons, 1902 Eggleston. Based on the author's own life as well as the life of Ohio itinerant preacher Jacob Young, this 1874 novel of a frontier Methodist minister and Bible agent presents a rollicking yet realistic view of early American life in the Midwest. Corn-shuckings, camp meetings, revivals, revels, and highwaymen color this novel-as-social-history.