John Gould (columnist)
Encyclopedia
John Thomas Gould was an American
humorist, essayist, and columnist
who wrote a column for the Christian Science Monitor for over sixty years from a farm in Lisbon Falls, Maine
. He was published in most major American newspapers and magazines and wrote thirty books.
Gould was born in Brighton, Massachusetts
to Franklin Farrar Gould and Hilda Dobson Jenkins. After his birth the family moved to Medford
, Massachusetts
. When Gould was ten years old his family, which then included three children, moved to Freeport, Maine
. Gould was responsible for farm chores before and after school, but his father stressed the importance of his education. His family subscribed to The Youth's Companion, the Rural New Yorker
and The Boston Post, all of which published materials submitted by the young writer.
In 1924, while Gould was a sophomore in high school, he offered to be a reporter for the Brunswick Record, and following an encouraging reply from the editor, began submitting news items and was thus gainfully employed with the Record until 1940. He was also writing as a stringer for other newspapers and as a result became a featured writer for the Boston Sunday Post.
After having graduated from Bowdoin College
in 1931, on his 24th birthday (October 22, 1932) he married Dorothy Florence Wells of Arlington
, Massachusetts
. After their honeymoon they made their home in Brunswick
, Maine
, where Gould resumed writing for the Brunswick Record and his wife became the newspaper's household editor. A few years later, John and Dorothy were able to purchase the Gould family farm in Lisbon Falls, Maine, where they would make their home for over thirty years. This farm was originally settled by his great-grandfather in 1798. It was here that they raised their family, and where John wrote most of the books that he is best remembered for.
Gould began writing a weekly column for the Christian Science Monitor and wrote his first book in 1942. The Monitor syndicated his column and he was published in all major magazines and many newspapers in the United States. For five years he did a daily radio show for WLAM
in Lewiston
, Maine
and a weekly show for WBZ
in Boston
. He was also a frequent contributor of taped features for the Trans-Canada English network of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
.
In addition, he was the editor and publisher of the Lisbon Enterprise, a weekly newspaper, published in Lisbon Falls, Maine. It was in these newspaper offices that Stephen King learned to hone his craft of writing. He had been assigned to the newspaper as punishment for his role in producing an underground newspaper in high school that made fun of the administration. John Gould became his mentor and helped him direct his writing skills in a more constructive manner. Stephen King talks about this experience in his book "On Writing".
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
humorist, essayist, and columnist
Columnist
A columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs....
who wrote a column for the Christian Science Monitor for over sixty years from a farm in Lisbon Falls, Maine
Lisbon Falls, Maine
Lisbon Falls is a census-designated place in the town of Lisbon, located in Androscoggin County, Maine, United States. The population of Lisbon Falls was 4,420 at the 2000 census...
. He was published in most major American newspapers and magazines and wrote thirty books.
Gould was born in Brighton, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
to Franklin Farrar Gould and Hilda Dobson Jenkins. After his birth the family moved to Medford
Medford, Massachusetts
Medford is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States, on the Mystic River, five miles northwest of downtown Boston. In the 2010 U.S. Census, Medford's population was 56,173...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. When Gould was ten years old his family, which then included three children, moved to Freeport, Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
. Gould was responsible for farm chores before and after school, but his father stressed the importance of his education. His family subscribed to The Youth's Companion, the Rural New Yorker
Rural New Yorker
Rural New Yorker was a weekly periodical founded in 1841 that was published by the Rural Publishing Co., New York. The magazine continued through the middle of the 20th century. A quilt pattern column was published under the name of "Mrs. R.E. Smith" from 1930 to 1937....
and The Boston Post, all of which published materials submitted by the young writer.
In 1924, while Gould was a sophomore in high school, he offered to be a reporter for the Brunswick Record, and following an encouraging reply from the editor, began submitting news items and was thus gainfully employed with the Record until 1940. He was also writing as a stringer for other newspapers and as a result became a featured writer for the Boston Sunday Post.
After having graduated from Bowdoin College
Bowdoin College
Bowdoin College , founded in 1794, is an elite private liberal arts college located in the coastal Maine town of Brunswick, Maine. As of 2011, U.S. News and World Report ranks Bowdoin 6th among liberal arts colleges in the United States. At times, it was ranked as high as 4th in the country. It is...
in 1931, on his 24th birthday (October 22, 1932) he married Dorothy Florence Wells of Arlington
Arlington, Massachusetts
Arlington is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, six miles northwest of Boston. The population was 42,844 at the 2010 census.-History:...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. After their honeymoon they made their home in Brunswick
Brunswick, Maine
Brunswick is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The population was 20,278 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Portland-South Portland-Biddeford metropolitan area. Brunswick is home to Bowdoin College, the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum, , and the...
, Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
, where Gould resumed writing for the Brunswick Record and his wife became the newspaper's household editor. A few years later, John and Dorothy were able to purchase the Gould family farm in Lisbon Falls, Maine, where they would make their home for over thirty years. This farm was originally settled by his great-grandfather in 1798. It was here that they raised their family, and where John wrote most of the books that he is best remembered for.
Gould began writing a weekly column for the Christian Science Monitor and wrote his first book in 1942. The Monitor syndicated his column and he was published in all major magazines and many newspapers in the United States. For five years he did a daily radio show for WLAM
WLAM
WLAM is a radio station broadcasting an oldies, news and sports format. Licensed to Lewiston, Maine, USA, the station serves the Lewiston-Auburn area. The station is currently owned by Nassau Broadcasting and simulcasts with WLVP .-History:...
in Lewiston
Lewiston, Maine
Lewiston is a city in Androscoggin County in Maine, and the second-largest city in the state. The population was 41,592 at the 2010 census. It is one of two principal cities of and included within the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine metropolitan New England city and town area and the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine...
, Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
and a weekly show for WBZ
WBZ (AM)
WBZ is the call sign for an AM radio station in Boston, Massachusetts owned by CBS Radio, itself owned by the CBS Corporation. Originally based in and broadcast from Springfield, Massachusetts, WBZ was the first commercial radio station in the United States...
in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
. He was also a frequent contributor of taped features for the Trans-Canada English network of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
.
In addition, he was the editor and publisher of the Lisbon Enterprise, a weekly newspaper, published in Lisbon Falls, Maine. It was in these newspaper offices that Stephen King learned to hone his craft of writing. He had been assigned to the newspaper as punishment for his role in producing an underground newspaper in high school that made fun of the administration. John Gould became his mentor and helped him direct his writing skills in a more constructive manner. Stephen King talks about this experience in his book "On Writing".
Published books
- "New England Town Meeting" (Brattleboro, VT: Stephen Daye Press, 1940)
- "Pre-Natal Care for Fathers" (Brattleboro, VT: Stephen Daye Press, 1941)
- Farmer Takes a Wife (New York: William Morrow, 1945)
- The House that Jacob Built (New York: William Morrow, 1947)
- And One to Grow On (New York: William Morrow, 1949)
- Neither Hay nor Grass (New York: William Morrow, 1951)
- The Fastest Hound Dog in the State of Maine (1953)
- Monstrous Depravity: A jeremiad and a lamentation [about things to eat] (New York: William Morrow, 1963)
- The Parables of Peter Partout, with illustrations by F. Wenderoth Saunders (Boston, Little, Brown, 1964)
- You Should Start Sooner; in which widely separated topics are strangely discussed by an old cuss, with illustrations by F. Wenderoth Saunders (Boston: Little, Brown, 1964)
- Last One in: Tales of a New England boyhood, a gently pleasing dip into a cool soothing pool of the not-so-long-ago, so to speak, with illustrations by F. Wenderoth Saunders (Boston, Little, Brown, 1966)
- Europe on Saturday Night; The Farmer and His Wife Take a Trip (Boston: Little, Brown, 1968)
- The Jonesport Raffle, and Numerous Other Maine Veracities, with illustrations by Edward Malsberg (Boston: Little, Brown, 1969)
- Twelve Grindstones; or, A few more good ones, being another cultural roundup of Maine folklore, sort of, although not intended to be definitive, and perhaps not so cultural, either, with illustrations by Edward Malsberg (Boston: Little, Brown, 1970)
- The Shag Bag, which, considering our peculiar [sic] present, has no motive, purpose, and dedicated aim, and is meant only to be amusing — which not very much is nowadays, is it?, with illustrations by Edward Malsberg (Boston: Little, Brown, 1972)
- Glass Eyes by the Bottle: Some conversations about some conversation pieces (Boston: Little, Brown, 1975)
- Maine Lingo: Boiled owls, billdads & wazzats, in collaboration with Lillian Ross and the editors of Down East magazine (Camden, Maine: Down East Magazine, 1975)
- Stitch in Time, with illustrations by Consuelo Eames Hanks (New York: W.W. Norton, 1985, ISBN 0-393-01976-4)
- Old Hundredth, with illustrations by F. Wenderoth Saunders (New York: W.W. Norton, 1987)
- There Goes Maine!: A somewhat history, sort of, of the Pine Tree State (New York: W.W. Norton, 1990, ISBN 0-393-02834-8)
- Funny about That, with drawings by Consuelo Eames Hanks (New York: W.W. Norton, 1992, ISBN 0-393-03049-0)
- It Is Not Now: Tales of Maine (New York: W.W. Norton, 1993, ISBN 0-393-03465-8)
- Dispatches from Maine: 1942-1992 (New York: W.W. Norton, 1994, ISBN 0-393-03624-3)
- Tales from Rhapsody Home, or, What They Don't Tell You About Senior Living (Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2000, ISBN 1-56512-280-1)
External links
- "The quintessential Downeast storyteller", an "exegesis" of his life, by John Gould, printed by the Christian Science Monitor on September 3, 2003.