Stewart Hall Holbrook (1893–1964) was an American logger, writer, and popular historian. His writings focused on what he called the "Far Corner": Washington,

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

, and

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...

. A self-proclaimed "low-brow" historian, his topics included

Ethan Allen Ethan Allen ( – February 12, 1789) was an American farmer, writer, military officer and politician. He is best known as one of the founders of Vermont and for the capture of Fort Ticonderoga during the American Revolutionary War, and wa ...

, the railroads, the timber industry, the Wobblies, and eccentrics of the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...

. An early proponent of conservationism, Holbrook believed that Oregon's growing population would damage the state's environment.

Career

Holbrook was a logger before he moved to

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

, in 1923, when he was 30 years old and became a very accomplished writer. He wrote for '' The Oregonian'' for over thirty years, was featured in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

,'' and authored over three dozen books. He also produced a number of satirical paintings under the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

of "Mr. Otis," in a style he called "primitive modern." These paintings are still shown occasionally at the Portland Art Museum or can be found at the University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections. In the early 1960s, Holbrook was the founder and leading spokesperson of an early fictitious conservation movement called the James G. Blaine Society, writing on subjects from sustained yield forestry to his concerns about unplanned population growth.Booth, Brian (2000)
"Stewart Holbrook"
Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission, Portland, Oregon. Retrieved June 17, 2012.

Awards and honors

The Stewart H. Holbrook Literary Legacy Award is named after Holbrook and is presented every year "to a person or organization in recognition of significant contributions that have enriched Oregon’s literary community."

Bibliography

*''Holy Old Mackinaw: A Natural History of the American Lumberjack'' (1938) *''Let Them Live'' (1938) *''Iron Brew: A Century of American Ore and Steel'' (1939) *''

'' (1940) *''Tall Timber'' (1941) *''Murder Out Yonder: An Informal Study of Certain Classic Crimes in Back-Country America'' (1941) *''None More Courageous: American War Heroes of Today'' (1942) *''A Narrative of Schafer Bros. Logging Company's Half Century in the Timber'' (1945) *''Burning an Empire: The Study of American Forest Fires'' (1943) *''Green Commonwealth: A Narrative of the Past and a Look at the Future of One Forest Products Community'' (1945) , *''Promised Land: A Collection of Northwest Writing'' (1945) *''Lost Men of American History'' (1946) , *''The Story of American Railroads'' (1947) *''Little Annie Oakley & Other Rugged People'' (1948) *(with Henry Sheldon) ''Northwest Corner: Oregon and Washington: the Last Frontier'' (1948) * *''America's Ethan Allen'' (1949) *''Yankee Exodus: an Account of Migration'' (1950) *''The Portland Story'' (1951) *''Far Corner: A Personal View of the

'' (1952) *''Saga of the Saw Files'' (1952) *''(with Ernest Richardson) Wild Bill Hickok Tames the West'' (1952) *''Age of the Moguls'' (1985) (Original work published 1953) *(with Milton Rugoff) ''Down on the Farm, A Picture History of Country Life in America in the Good Old Days'' (1954) *'' James J. Hill: A Great Life in Brief'' (1955) *''Machines of Plenty: Pioneering in American Agriculture'' (1955) *''

Davy Crockett Colonel (United States), Colonel David Crockett (August 17, 1786 – March 6, 1836) was an American politician, militia officer and frontiersman. Often referred to in popular culture as the "King of the Wild Frontier", he represented Tennesse ...

'' (1955) *'' Wyatt Earp: U.S. Marshall'' (1956) *''The Columbia'' ( Rivers of America Series) (1956) *''The Rocky Mountain Revolution'' (1956) *''Dreamers of the American Dream'' (1957) *(with Ernest Richardson) ''Swamp Fox of the Revolution'' (1957) *''Mr. Otis'' (1958) *''The Golden Age of Quackery'' (1959) *''The Golden Age of Railroads'' (1960) *''Yankee Logger: A Recollection of Woodsmen, Cooks and River Drivers'' (1961) *''The Old Post Road: The Story of the Boston Post Road'' (1962) *(with Nard Jones and Roderick Haig-Brown) ''The Pacific Northwest'' (1963) *''The Wonderful West'' (1963) *''The

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook language, Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin language, Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river headwater ...

'' (1965) *''Wildmen, Wobblies & Whistle Punks: Stewart Holbrook's Lowbrow Northwest'' (1992) - an anthology of his writings.

References

External links

The Wild, Wild Wobblies, by Stewart HolbrookBio at Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission
{{DEFAULTSORT:Holbrook, Stewart 1893 births 1964 deaths Writers from Portland, Oregon Historians of the Industrial Workers of the World American loggers American male journalists 20th-century American journalists The Oregonian people Industrial Workers of the World in Oregon