Doug Harding..
For shame...for shame...for shame. You lived in Kellerton and don't know
who Harry Bedwell was...
Harry, as dubbed by Frank Donovan in his biography was "The last of the
great railroad story tellers"...He's my all time favorite railroad fiction
writer. I quote from the introduction to Donovan's book.
" Harry Bedwell chronicled in one book and some 70 short stories and
articles the actions and reaction of railroad men faced with the unexpected.
He was
himself a railroad man with wide and varied experience in that most
versatile of all railroad occupations, that of station agent and telegrapher.
Harry "drew" the finest word pictures of any writer I've ever read...ie
"Indian summer had come to the prairies, and a tranquil hush was on that bright
land. River smells floated through the trees. The air was like fragile silk"
Sounds like Willa Cather...but it's Bedwell.
Eddie Sand, boomer telegrapher, appeared in nearly all of Harry's
stories...Other notable characters were Hi Wheeler, Bricks Lemon, Scrap Iron
Hawkins,
Trainmaster "Clinker" Ward, old Salt and Molasses Nickerson, Buck Barabe,
Double Drop Brill
Here's one of my favorites of Harry's word pictures: "Little old battered,
telegraph stations under the eternal frown of dark peaks, with Moguls
stamping solemnly on the grade. Headlights along the glittering ribbon of
steel
crowded close under the bluffs, with the river smells heavy in the night. The
restless lights and ceaseless turmoil of great terminal yards. Lonely tricks
at the tag end of night, when the stars died quietly and the gallant
challenge of a hotshot was flung across the prairies to salute the dawn."
Harry's one novel..THE BOOMER is still available..I got a copy through
Bookfinder.com
His biography HARRY BEDWELL, Last of the great railroad story tellers by
Frank P. Donovan 1959 is usually available from the same source.
Donovan mentions a visit with Bedwell's cousin Florence Whitson in
Kellerton..this would have been in the late 50's.
Harry Bedwell was born about 1988 (I can't find the exact year)..died in
1955.
Having lived in Kellerton you need to pick up Donovan's biography and
Bedwell's own THE BOOMER.
Now aren't you glad you inquired.??
Pete
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