Charles M Sheldon

Charles Monroe Sheldon (1857-1946) was born in Wellsville, New York. After receiving his education at Brown University and Andover Theological Seminary, he founded the Central Congregational Church in Topeka, Kansas, in 1889. He wote stories that he often read to his congregation. In 1897 he published his highly popular In His Steps. The book was an instant success and for sixty years remained the largest-selling book in the United States after the Bible, with sales estimated at more than twenty-two million copies worldwide. From 1920 to 1925, he edited the Christian Herald. Some of the journalist conventions he pioneered are commonly used in the American press today.