“There Are Folks Comin’ After Us That Will Need Trees”: Progressive Era Conservation, The Woods Tradition, and Maine Writer Holman Francis Day

Abstract

Throughout his novels, Maine author Holman Francis Day maintained the importance of both the conservation of timber and the cultural conservation of Maine’s rural communities. Day wrote his novels in a Progressive Era climate permeated by a wise-use ideology. The point for Day, however, was not whether resources should be used, but by whom; his approach emphasized Maine’s resources for Maine’s people and industry. As a writer of fiction, Day balanced the needs of the people of Maine with a concern for the natural resources that made the state unique. Dale Potts is an Assistant Professor of History at South Dakota State University where he teaches courses in Native American history, environmental history and United States cultural history. His research includes the study of popular nature writing, including pulp fiction, and how it relates to the topics of conservation and environmentalism in the twentieth century