The Winning of Barbara Worth could have been named as aptly, The Transformation of Willard Holmes. The young Eastern engineer comes West to work for his mentor who controls the Company. When he arrives in the West, he is the epitome of the Eastern Dandy, except there is a solid core to him. By the end of the story, not only does his physical appearance alter — sun darkened skin, his gait now indistinguishable from one who was reared in the West — but his inner self as well has changed, from a Company man to a true man of the desert, doing his work for the benefit of his fellow man.

Barbara Worth characterizes all that is great in a woman. She is kind, she is good, she ministers to the sick and poor, and she is the inspiration for Jefferson Worth's men's devotion to reclaiming the...