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King Spruce (1908) by Holman Day ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
On the front flyleaf there is written:
Mrs. M. E Crom
Belmond Iowa
Nov 8th 1911
and in pen:
Willed to Beryl Huke
By Grandmother Crom
My copy was published by the A. L. Burt Company.
King Spruce follows the happenings of Dwight Wade, a young principal of the local high school. In the beginning, it looks like it is going to be your run-of-the mill romance novel. Dwight Wade and the daughter (Elva Barrett) of a rich lumber tycoon (John Barrett), are in love, and her father disapproves of this, Dwight being just a schoolteacher. Dwight goes out to prove himself to make his fortune.
But this story is nothing like you would imagine a story that starts out like this would be. You can tell that the writer did his research about the lumber industry, as it sometimes gets hard to sift through the technical descriptions, but if you can get over those, you see that this is truly a story jam-packed with adventure.
Most of the book takes place in the forests of Maine, the state where Holman Day (November 6, 1865 – February 19, 1935) was born. It tells a glorious story of bravery, humanity, and secrets untold. All throughout, I was thinking what a wonderful movie this book would make, and apparently someone else already had that idea! They made a film out of it in 1920. I would love to know if it is extant. Reading the contemporary movie review from Moving Picture World, it seems that it was pretty true to the book. If you want to read the book, I would recommend not reading the film review, as it has major spoilers in it.
It took a while to get into, but I’m so glad I pushed through the beginning, because it sure was a wild ride! You can read it on gutenberg, so what are you waiting for? https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/34948
