author
Robert Bloomer Hare Bell
1872–1956
A Canadian-born Episcopal minister who also wrote imaginative fiction, he moved between church work and public reform with unusual energy. His surviving books range from practical spiritual writing to a 1917 story collection filled with fantasy, folklore, and animal tales.
1 Audiobook
The laughing bear, and other stories
by Robert Bloomer Hare Bell
About the author
Born in Ottawa on April 2, 1872, Robert Bloomer Hare Bell was a Canadian-born Episcopal minister who later served in Seattle, Omaha, and Des Moines. Sources connected with his public-domain work describe him as both a clergyman and a social activist, especially interested in parole reform and efforts to require financial support for children born outside marriage.
Bell also wrote books of his own. His best-known title now is The Laughing Bear, and Other Stories (1917), a collection of imaginative tales that has remained visible through library catalogs, Project Gutenberg, and LibriVox. Another documented work, The Life Abundant; a Manual of Living, shows his more practical and reflective side.
He died on November 14, 1956, in Los Angeles County, California. Although he is not widely remembered today, his work leaves an appealing mix of ministry, reform-minded public life, and storybook imagination.