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Holman Day

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Holman Day
Holman Day in 1921
Born
Holman Francis Day

(1865-11-06)November 6, 1865
DiedFebruary 19, 1935(1935-02-19) (aged 69)
OccupationAuthor
Signature

Holman Francis Day (November 6, 1865 – February 19, 1935)[1] was an American author, born at Vassalboro, Maine. The Holman Day House, his home in Auburn, Maine, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. His book The Rider of the King Log was adapted into the 1921 film The Rider of the King Log. His play Along Came Ruth was adapted into the 1924 film Along Came Ruth.

Personal life

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Day married Helen Gerald, the only daughter of railroad engineer Amos F. Gerald and Caroline W. Rowell. She died in 1902 at the age of 32, and was interred in Maplewood Cemetery in her father's home town of Fairfield, Maine. Day died at his home in Mill Valley, California on February 19, 1935, and was buried in Nichols Cemetery in his hometown of Vassalboro, Maine.[2][3]

Career

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Sheet music for Irving Berlin's song "Along Came Ruth", from Day's 1914 play starring Irene Fenwick

He graduated from Colby College (class of 1887) and in 1889-90 he was managing editor of the publications of the Union Publishing Company in Bangor, Maine. He was also editor and proprietor of the Gazette in Dexter, Maine, a special writer for the Journal in Lewiston, Maine, representative of the Boston Herald, and managing editor of the Daily Sun in Lewiston. From 1901 until 1904 he was military secretary to Gov. John F. Hill of Maine.

He came to Carmel-by-the-Sea, California in the 1920s.

The main poet of Maine and no small man in Carmel! Much too busy to do much visiting but when he does it's a tonic to listen to him. His many novels contain adventures in the big woods and sturdy outdoor life. He says the first 'pome' he ever wrote for the Lewiston Journal brought a libel suit on the paper and put a blackhand value on his three stanza gem to the extent of a sum never received by the great Longfellow in his palmiest days. "Started right out as a high priced poet," he says.

Works

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  • Up in Maine (1901), verse
  • Kin O'Ktaadn (1904)
  • The Bye-Bye Chair[5] (1904), excerpts from this poem were used by Congressman James Thomas Heflin in his May 1914 Mother's Day speech
  • Squire Phin (1905; 1913), a novel dramatized as The Circus Man and produced in Chicago in 1909
  • Rainy Day Railroad War[6] (1906; 1913)
  • The Eagle Badge (1908)
  • King Spruce[7] (1908)
  • The Ramrodders[8] (1910)
  • The Skipper and the Skipped[9] (1911)
  • The Red Lane: A Romance of the Border (1912)
  • The Landloper[10] (1915)
  • Along Came Ruth play produced in New York, (1914)
  • Blow the Man Down[11] (1916)
  • Where Your Treasure Is (1917)
  • Pine Tree Ballads[12] (1917)
  • Kavanagh's Clare (1917)
  • The Rider of the King Log (1919)
  • When Egypt Went Broke[13] (1920)
  • All Wool Morrison[14] (1921)
  • Joan of Arc of the North Woods (1922)[15]
  • The Ship of Joy (1931) Schwabacher-Frey Company: San Francisco

References

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  1. ^ GoodReads
  2. ^ Heseltine, Charles D. (March 9, 2015). The Illustrated Atlas of Maine's Street & Electric Railways: 1863–1946. PWM. ISBN 978-1502406224.
  3. ^ "Holman F. Day, Maine-Born Author, Dead". Biddeford Daily Journal. Mill Valley, California. AP. February 21, 1935. pp. 1, 7. Retrieved September 5, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ "Who's Who-and Here". Carmel Pine Cone. Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. December 14, 1928. pp. 9–15. Retrieved October 17, 2022.
  5. ^ The Bye-Bye Chair
  6. ^ The Rainy Day Railroad War by Holman Day
  7. ^ King Spruce, A Novel by Holman Day
  8. ^ The Ramrodders: A Novel by Holman Day
  9. ^ The Skipper and the Skipped: Being the Shore Log of Cap'n Aaron Sproul by Day
  10. ^ The Landloper: The Romance of a Man on Foot by Holman Day
  11. ^ Blow The Man Down: A Romance Of The Coast by Holman Day
  12. ^ Pine Tree Ballads - Rhymed Stories of Unplaned Human Natur' up in Maine
  13. ^ When Egypt Went Broke: A Novel by Holman Day
  14. ^ All-Wool Morrison by Holman Day
  15. ^ Joan of Arc of the North Woods by Holman Day

wikisource-logo.svg This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainGilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). "Holman Day". New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.

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