Day, Holman

(1865 – 1935) was born in Vassalboro and was an 1887 graduate of Colby College. Day was a poet, novelist, and filmmaker, as well as a correspondent for the Lewiston Sun newspaper for years. According to Milton Davis,

He attended Oak Grove, a Quaker seminary in his native town of Vassalboro, and Colby College, where he made some reputation as a wit, writer, and drinker. Immediately after graduation in 1887, he became man-of-all-work for the Fairfield Journal, to which he contributed his first Maine country column, “Evenings in a Country Store.” From 1888 to 1892 he was editor and part owner of the Dexter Gazette (later Eastern Gazette), which he made a successful and sprightly country weekly. During the next twenty years he was chiefly associated as special correspondent and columnist with the Lewiston Evening Journal, though at times he was briefly connected with other papers in Maine and in Boston.

His films include Cupid, Registered Guide (1921) and The Knight of the Pines (1920), both 20 minute two-reel black and white silent North Woods comedies. All But Forgotten (1978) is a documentary by Everett Foster on the Holman Day film company (1920-1921) in Maine.

The image at right is sheet music for Irving Berlin‘s song “Along Came Ruth”, from Day’s 1914 play starring Irene Fenwick.

Day produced over 25 books. His works were comments on society and often written in his version of the Maine dialect. His Saints of Shiloh refers to the Sanfordites whose temple, Shiloh, is located in Durham.

His introduction to the poem “When General Knox Kept Open House” exemplifies his admiration for the spirit of the people of Maine.

I like the thoughts of the long nights! I know the barns are full inshore and the coasters are hunting harbor; lights shine in the windows and the rosy beams leak under the cracks of the doors as though there was so much glory inside the warm homes that it is spilling out into the night. I like to think of the open hands and smiles and greetings at the thresholds, and tables heaped. I dream of the days of the old mansions along the coast of Maine when the big men of the countryside did not live for themselves, as so many do now, but made feast and frolic for the humble ones whose cupboards were bare. (Kin O’ Kataadn, p. 174.)

Additional resources

All But Forgotten: Holman Francis Day, Filmmaker. [moving image recording] Blue Hill Falls, Me. Northeast Historic Film. 1988.

“Contemporary New England Humorists,” New England Magazine, February, 1906.

Davis, Milton. “Holman Francis Day.” Dictionary of American Biography, Supplements 1-2: To 1940. American Council of Learned Societies, 1944-1958. Reproduced in History Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI. Gale Group.

Day, Holman. Papers. 1899-1970. [University of Maine. Special Collections.]

Waterboro Public Library at http://www.waterboro.lib.me.us/

Images are from Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holman_Day. (accessed February, 2019) [Public Domain]