Stewart Holbrook

Stewart Hall Holbrook (1893–1964) was an American logger, writer, and popular historian. His writings focused on what he called the "Far Corner": Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. A self-proclaimed "low-brow" historian, his topics included Ethan Allen, the railroads, the timber industry, the Wobblies, and eccentrics of the Pacific Northwest. An early proponent of conservationism, Holbrook believed that Oregon's growing population would damage the state's environment.

Career Holbrook was a logger before he moved to Portland, Oregon, in 1923, when he was 30 years old and became a very accomplished writer. He wrote for The Oregonian for over thirty years, was featured in The New Yorker, and authored over three dozen books. He also produced a number of satirical paintings under the pseudonym of "Mr. Otis," in a style he called "primitive modern." These paintings are still shown occasionally at the Portland Art Museum or can be found at the University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections. In the early 1960s, Holbrook was the founder and leading spokesperson of an early fictitious conservation movement called the James G. Blaine Society, writing on subjects from sustained yield forestry to his concerns about unplanned population growth.

Awards and honors The Stewart H. Holbrook Literary Legacy Award is named after Holbrook and is presented every year "to a person or organization in recognition of significant contributions that have enriched Oregon’s literary community."