A lot of people isolated in their houses because of the coronavirus have spent time reading books. Some asked me for recommendations, so I directed them to my website, www.georgesmithmaine.com, to check out my book reviews. And I started pulling favorite old Maine books from my shelves, and enjoying reading them again.
The first one was “For Maine Only” by Edmund Ware Smith, published in 1959. Smith was a very popular writer. You probably recognize the title of his book “The One-Eyed Poacher and the Maine Woods.” “For Maine Only” is a wonderful collection of stories, some true and some fiction. They are all compelling, and I love the way Smith includes humor in his stories.
In the second book I pulled off the shelf was Bud Leavitt’s “Twelve Months in Maine,” published in 1977. I was surprised when I opened the book and saw that Bud had autographed it to my dad, who he called a grand Maine sportsman. Dad was certainly that. Many of my old Maine books were originally Dad’s.
Bud was the outdoor writer for the Bangor Daily News for many years, and I got to be friends with him. He even took me fishing once for Atlantic salmon. We fished from the shore of the Penobscot River on the Brewer side. I saw several huge salmon leap out of the river, but neither Bud nor I caught any.
But it was so much fun fishing with Bud. He had a great sense of humor and wonderful stories of his outdoor adventures all over Maine. Bud was a good friend of baseball legend Ted Williams and wrote many columns about fishing with Ted all over Maine. I enjoyed all the photos and drawings in Bud’s book, particularly those of Ted Williams enjoying fishing in Maine.
Of course, I also pulled down Gene Letourneau’s book, “Sportsmen Say,” one of my all-time favorites, and it too was autographed to Dad. Gene wrote daily outdoor columns for this newspaper for 50 years. Then I read my favorite Louise Dickinson Rich book, “We Took to the Woods,” about her life living on the remote Rapid River, where I loved to fish. Next was John Cole’s “In Maine,” full of wonderful stories — as well as John’s opinions (he had a lot!).
I have some really old books, including “Down the West Branch” by Capt. Charles Farrar, published in 1886. Having spent a lot of time on the West Branch of the Penobscot River, it was fascinating to read stories from there more than a hundred years ago (including their caribou hunt).
I also re-read “25 Years A Game Warden,” by Frederick Jorgensen, published in 1937, when game wardens were very unpopular in Maine. Consider this sentence in the book’s first paragraph: “Before I went into the warden service in 1902 I was warned that I wouldn’t be popular, and the warning was proved when I discovered a stick of dynamite waiting for me in the ashes of my camp fire”.
Jorgenson was originally from Sweden, and I was surprised when I read that one of the jobs he had before becoming a game warden was in my hometown of Winthrop, where he worked in the woolen mill. When I was a teenager I worked in that same mill.
I also reread Bernd Heinrich’s “A Year in the Maine Woods,” as well as “The Best Maine Stories,” edited by Sanford Phippen. It’s a great collection of Maine stories written by a variety of authors.
Of course, I have lots of novels and books on hunting, fishing, and baseball. I even have a book, “Six Crises,” by Richard Nixon. OK, I’m not going to read that!
If you’d like to read these or other old Maine books, see if you can find them in your local library. I guarantee you’ll really enjoy them. And I was surprised to find that many are still available for purchase.
George Smith can be reached at 34 Blake Hill Road, Mount Vernon 04352, or georgesmithmaine@gmail.com. Read more of Smith’s writings at www.georgesmithmaine.com.
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