OQUOSSOC — Famous Maine author Louise Dickinson Rich and her writings will be featured in a new exhibit from now through September in the Rangeley Outdoor Sporting Heritage Museum.
On display is the typewriter she used to write “We Took to the Woods,” a number of photos of family life at Forest Lodge in Upton, personal items, books and articles, Don Palmer, president of the Rangeley Lakes Region Historical Society, said in a recent news release.
“We Took to the Woods” remains a classic account of life in the backwoods of Maine on the Rapid River in Oxford County during the 1940s. Published during the dark days of World War II, it was an instant national bestseller, Palmer said. It remains in print today. At one time, it was required reading for Maine schoolchildren.
Louise’s story is about her life at Forest Lodge with her husband, Ralph, and their two small children in the deep woods near Middle Dam on Lower Richardson Lake. The small house is accessible by a lumber road.
On Saturday, July 13, at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., Forest Lodge owner Aldro French will be at the Outdoor Sporting Heritage Museum to discuss what it is like to live in the former home of a renowned author. He will also share some insights into Rich and her life in the Maine woods and discuss his efforts to preserve this historic site, Palmer said.
For more than four decades, “Aldro has become a colorful part of the history of Forest Lodge, not by writing stories, but by living them,” he said. “Looking forward, he is hoping to find someone interested in preserving Forest Lodge and the memory of Louise Dickinson Rich.”
Done in her spare time, “We Took to the Woods” is a well-written humorous account of their day-to-day doings, the birth of their oldest child, Rufus, attended only by her husband, the reaction of native Mainers to the outsiders and the long stretches of being cut off from the outside world, Palmer said.
“In a sense, it is an escape work; at the same time it shows how with imagination, ingenuity, and humor people can adapt and survive in almost any lifestyle,” he said. “It is in sharp contrast to today’s technology-driven ‘connected lifestyle.'”
Palmer invited people to visit the museum in Oquossoc at the corner of Routes 17 and 4. The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday in July and August.
For additional information on the museum, visit its website at www.rangeleyoutdoormuseum.org or follow it on Facebook at www.facebook.com/RangeleyOSHM.
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- The typewriter that Maine author Louise Dickinson Rich used to write “We Took to the Woods” is on exhibit from now through September at the Rangeley Outdoor Sporting Heritage Museum in Oquossoc. The exhibit also features a number of photos of family life at Forest Lodge on the Rapid River in Upton, personal items, books and articles.
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- Maine author Louise Dickinson Rich is shown in a photograph that will be on exhibit at the Rangeley Outdoor Sporting Heritage Museum in Oquossoc beginning Saturday, July 13, and running through September.
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- Aldro French, owner of Forest Lodge in Upton where Louise Dickinson Rich wrote “We Took to the Woods,” will speak at the Rangeley Outdoor Sporting Heritage Museum on Saturday, July 13, about what it’s like to live there.
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