13 h 4 minAudiobook16 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
In the Maine woods, timber promises wealth—but the forest holds a power no owner can claim.
In King Spruce, A Novel, Holman Day takes you into the north woods of Maine, where winter logging feeds the spring rivers. Crews live in camps, fell and trim trees, and haul logs over snow. Behind every load stands hard, skilled work in a landscape of enormous trees and harsh weather.
The struggle reaches beyond the logging camps. Timber owners compete to hold and profit from great stands of spruce, while the men working for them face the rough demands of the trade. Day, a Maine writer and newspaperman who knows this country, brings ambition and natural majesty together in an adventure where land means wealth.
What you’ll discover
- The forest as king Enter woods that offer fortunes yet remain stronger than the people seeking them.
- Life in winter camps Follow logging crews through the demanding work of felling, trimming, and hauling timber.
- A contest for timberland See how ambition gathers around the question of who controls the great spruce stands.
- From snow to river Trace the seasonal movement of logs from winter woods toward the spring waters.
- Maine through local eyes Discover a lumber country shaped by its workers, its owners, and its immense trees.
Who will love it
Readers who love rugged adventure, forest lore and old logging songs will find a home here, along with anyone drawn to a young man's love story set against big business and the open north woods.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A Teacher Faces the Timber Throne
- A Father's Rage Drives Wade Away
- Two Rivals and a Fight in Castonia
- A Partnership and a Visit to Misery Gore
- An Eviction Lights a Forest Fire
- The Warden on Jerusalem Mountain
- Ghost Stories at Enchanted Camp
- The Fight for the Water
- What the Story Is Really About
Who’s who
- Dwight WadeA former college football center and high school principal who flees to the Maine woods and becomes a logging partner and champion of the weak.
- John BarrettA millionaire timber owner and mayor who rules from Castle Cut Em and wants a wealthy marriage for his daughter.
- Elva BarrettJohn Barrett's spirited daughter, who loves Wade and will not let her father choose her friends.
- Pulaski D. BrittThe red-faced, bullying woods executive of King Spruce, a gossip and a tyrant who treats men and rivers as property.
- Colin MacLeodA huge young river-driving boss who adores Nina Ide and will fight anyone who comes between them.
- Rodburd IdeThe small, cheerful storekeeper and self-styled mayor of Castonia, who takes Wade as partner to break Britt's hold on the water.
- Nina IdeIde's kind and sharp-eyed daughter, who grew up at the edge of the forest and befriends the lonely.
- Tommy EyeA drunken teamster who has spent many summers in jail and proves loyal and brave on the reins.
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- Audiobook
- 13 h 4 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 16 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Re Abete Rosso, un romanzo
by Holman Day · 1908
A schoolteacher flees a timber baron's wrath into the Maine woods, where a tyrant called King Spruce rules.
Medium level10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
King Spruce is a novel by Holman Day, an American writer who made the Maine woods his subject. It was written in the early twentieth century, when great timber owners ruled the north country and the forests were being cut faster than they could grow.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A Teacher Faces the Timber Throne
The story opens in Stillwater, a small Maine city where five sawmills howl along a canal. Dwight Wade, the young principal of the high school, climbs a sunny hill toward a big building the townspeople call Castle Cut Em. Inside is the office of the Umcolcus Lumbering and Log-driving Association, which the men of the north woods call King Spruce. They speak of this union of timber owners as if it were a living tyrant, and its power is real. The walls show a polished saw crossed by two axes, and a stuffed porcupine sits on the mantel.
In the waiting room Wade watches big, brown-faced woodsmen sit with their hats on their knees. They are stumpage buyers, men who need yearly contracts to cut timber on the owners' land. One of them storms out of the inner office, furious because the owner has refused to renew his contract. He cut honestly and left no waste, but he would not pay secret money to the agents who skim the profits. The others whisper that they will share a double contract with him so that he learns to play along with the graft.
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What is King Spruce about?
It is a logging novel set in Maine. A young teacher, Dwight Wade, is driven out of town by a timber baron and goes north, where he becomes a partner in a lumber business and fights for fair access to the river.
Who or what is King Spruce?
King Spruce is the woodsmen's name for the association of timber owners who control the land, the dams, the booms and the courts. In the book it stands for the power of the timber trade as a whole.
Is King Spruce a true story?
No, it is a work of fiction by Holman Day, written in the early twentieth century. It draws on real conditions in the Maine woods, including the timber trade, forest fires, river drives and the songs of lumber camps.
The author
Holman Day
1865–1935 · American writer and editor
Holman Day was an American writer and editor, born in Vassalboro, Maine, in 1865. He worked in journalism and wrote novels and poetry. His novels include King Spruce, published in 1908, and The Landloper, published in 1915. He later lived in California and died in Mill Valley in 1935.
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