Helen Hamlin

Helen Hamlin (1917-2004) was an American author who is known for her two books on life in northern Maine.

Helen Austin Leidy was born in Fort Kent, Maine^[2] and grew up in Aroostook County, Maine.^[1] In 1937 she graduated from the Madawaska Training School, later a part of the University of Maine at Fort Kent.^[3][4] Her father and grandfather were Maine fish and game wardens.^[5] She met her first husband Willis ('Curly') Hamlin, also a game warden, at a dance while she was teaching at Churchill Lake.^[5] Being a speaker of both french and English helped in her teaching job since she had students in Churchill Lake who only spoke French.^[1]

Her first book, Nine Mile Bridge: Three Years in the Maine Woods, described her first years living in the woods with Curly Hamlin in the area known as St. John Valley.^[6] The book became a best seller in 1945^[7] and was reprinted in 1973 and 2005.^[8] The book also became the basis for later discussions about living in the Maine woods.^[9] Hamlin's second book was about tales from Aroostook county and the news covered the process she used to gather information for this book.^[10] The book was titled Pine, Potatoes, and People and was published in 1948.^[11]

In 1947 she married Robert Lennon, who worked at the United States' Department of Fish and Wildlife.^[12] She moved to Michigan in the 1950s, where she painted portraits that appeared in shows in Washington, D.C.^[2] She later moved to Wisconsin where she obtained a teaching degree from the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse in 1961.^[13] In Wisconsin she taught French at Central High School in La Crosse.^[14] She also traveled, and worked for the United States' State Department as a translator in Africa.^[2] She died in Minnesota in 2004.^[15]

• Hamlin, Helen (2005). Nine Mile Bridge : three years in the Maine woods (3rd ed.). Yarmouth, Me.: Islandport Press, Inc. ISBN 0-9671662-5-X. OCLC 61677740.
• Hamlin, Helen (1948-01-01). Pine, Potatoes and People: The Story of Aroostook (1st ed.). W. W. Norton & Company.

In 1946, Hamlin was named to the Pen and Brush Club, a group founded in 1863 to recognize women writers and artists.^[16] In 1988 she was named an outstanding alumnus of the University of Maine at Fort Kent.^[15]

• Helen Hamlin collection, University of New England library