Gould, John Thomas (1908 - 2003)

Genre: General Fiction, Non-Fiction

John Thomas Gould was born Oct. 22, 1908, in Boston, but grew up in Freeport, Maine, and graduated from Bowdoin College. He spent most of his adult life on a farm in Lisbon Falls. Gould worked as a reporter, a free-lance journalist, and an editor. In 1942 he published his first essay in the Christian Science Monitor and contributed a weekly column for over 60 years. L.L.Bean, a boyhood friend, established a library in his Freeport Store and named it the John Gould Room. Governor Angus King proclaimed August 17, 2002, as John Gould Day throughout the state: "Whereas, John Gould has captured the unique Maine haracter and language on paper as few others have been able to do..." John and Dorothy Gould were married for 70 years and had two children. Gould died on Sept.1, 2003.

Selected bibliography

  • New England Town Meeting - Safeguard of Democracy (1940)
  • Pre-Natal Care for Fathers (1941)
  • Farmer Takes a Wife (1942) Bestseller
  • The House That Jacob Built (1947), Gould rebuilds the house his grandfather built
  • And One to Grow on: Recollections of a Maine Boyhood (1949)
  • Neither Hay Nor Grass (1951)
  • The Fastest Hound Dog In The State Of Maine (1953), tall tales about Maine
  • You Should Start Sooner, In Which Widely Separated Topics are Strangely Discussed by an Old Cuss (1965)
  • Last One in: Tales of a New England Boyhood (1966)
  • Europe on Saturday Night: The Farmer and his Wife Take a Trip (1968)
  • The Jonesport Raffle and Numerous Other Maine Veracities (1969)
  • Maine Lingo: Boiled Owls, Billdads & Wazzats (1975): Glossary that furnishes the reader with the terminologies of lobstermen, seafarers, farmers and lumbermen of the state's legendary North Woods.
  • Glass Eyes By the Bottle: Some Conversations About Some Conversation Pieces (1975)
  • This Trifling Distinction: Reminiscences from Down East (1978)
  • No Other Place (1984) The setting for this novel is the area of Penobscot Bay around 1611,
  • Stitch in Time (1985), observations on coastal Maine village inhabitants
  • Wines of Pentagoet (1986) Sequel to No Other Place.
  • Old Hundredth (1987): Humorous tales of Maine.
  • There Goes Maine!: A Somewhat History, Sort of, of the Pine Tree State (1990),
  • Funny About That (1992)
  • It Is Not Now: Tales from Maine's Back River (1993)
  • Dispatches from Maine: 1942-1992 (1994): A collection of essays originally published in the Christian Science Monitor; capture the distinct flavor of rural America and the people and concerns of Maine specifically.
  • Maine's Golden Road: A Memoir (1995): Narrative of retreats Gould and his daughter's father-in-law made over the years
  • Our Croze Nest (1997), A novel of Morning River Farm, far downeast
  • Tales from Rhapsody Home (Or, What They Don't Tell You About Senior Living) (2000)

Selected Resources