Author Gould dies at 94 Celebrated Mainer known for dry wit

John Gould, whose dry humor laced his well-read newspaper columns and books about his adopted state of Maine, died Sunday at Maine Medical Center in Portland. He was 94.

Gould, who chronicled Maine life in more than 30 books and thousands of columns, had been suffering from congestive heart failure and was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia.

Recalled by Maine associates as a prolific writer who could wax acerbic with colleagues, Gould made an impression on author Stephen King.

As a teenager, King worked for Gould as a sportswriter at the Lisbon Enterprise newspaper in Durham.

“He was the guy who gave me my first writing lessons and the only ones that mattered,” King said in a prepared statement Monday. “He also gave me a huge roll of paper that I never used up.”

Described by other Maine associates as a writer with an unwavering eye for true Maine culture, Gould reportedly could be blunt, at times, with those around him.

“He was irascible, very much the curmudgeon with a sharp eyeball,” writer Sanford Phippen of Hancock recalled Monday. “He was in the Mark Twain tradition to a great extent. He didn’t suffer fools gladly.”

Phippen, 61, said that “people of my age, and certainly older, were very influenced by him.” He recalled when the Bibliophile Society of Portland listed his book “Kitchen Boy” and Gould’s book “Mirror of Maine” as two of the 100 best books about Maine. The books were on display together for a while.

“They put them in a glass case,” Phippen recalled. He and Gould “were in touch about that. We thought it was very funny.”

For more than 60 years, Gould wrote a column for The Christian Science Monitor. It is thought to be the longest-running column in the country.

Locally, he wrote for other newspapers, including the Times Record in Brunswick and, most recently, the Ellsworth Weekly.

Gould’s essays, most set in Maine, covered topics that varied from the adventures of a Down East snowplow driver going to Boston to the origin of molasses cookies. His books included the best seller “The Farmer Takes a Wife” and his most recent title, “Tales from Rhapsody Home or What They Don’t Tell You About Retirement Living.”

A Bowdoin College graduate, Gould was born in Boston and moved with his family to Freeport at age 10. He worked as a newspaper publisher, radio commentator, lecturer and florist.

Writing was a constant in his life, beginning in high school when he worked part time for a local newspaper. Writing was a skill he took to almost effortlessly, according to Phippen, a longtime friend.

“He had a natural storyteller’s eye and a great sense of humor and absurdity that was just beautiful,” Phippen recalled. “What he did in that half-real, half-fantasy world he created about Maine was hilarious.”

Owen Thomas, his editor at The Christian Science Monitor, said Gould remained active, engaged and prolific well into his 90s.

“He’s always thinking and he has a phenomenal memory,” Thomas wrote last year. “He remembers vividly stories from decades ago, and has the ability to put you there and tell you just what it felt like.”

While most of Gould’s stories were set in Maine, they speak to universal themes, according to Thomas.

Gould was honored recently when former Gov. Angus King declared Aug. 17, 2002, as “John Gould Day.”

Retailer L.L. Bean established a library in its Freeport store and named it the John Gould Room.

Gould’s survivors include his wife of 70 years, Dorothy Gould, of Freeport; their daughter, Kathryn MacLeod Christy of Standish; five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. The Goulds’ other child, John Thomas Gould Jr., died last October.

A funeral service is planned for Saturday, Sept. 6, at the United Lodge No. 8 of the Order of Masons in Brunswick.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.