Customer Reviews

Maynard S. Bird: The Saga of a Maine Son

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In this book, Rose Bird Waterman sheds light not just on her father's life, but the life and times of southeastern Maine, from the late nineteenth to early twentieth century. The incredible richness of historical detail makes the reader feel transported in time. Maynard Bird's desire to carry on the family name and make something of himself through his innate gifts and self-motivation is indeed admirable. Rose has sprinkled the story with a charming use of language and touches of wit, that make it a very enjoyable, informative and inspiring read. I hope the people of southeastern Maine are aware of this fine addition to their recorded history.

Rose Bird Waterman has written a biography that is far more than an inspiring saga of "a Maine son". This book may inspire many family genealogists to start working on their own family biographies. Just as the author's father, Maynard S. Bird, felt that each new business venture was an "adventure", the lives of many men and women are filled with adventures - as long as a biographer is fascinated with the subject and is determined to devote time and effort in research. And Rose Bird Waterman has done just that. Her father, in the last years of his life, had his business and personal papers destroyed. He wanted to be remembered as a plain man who built up his fortune and his standing in society by his own hard work and self-taught business and financial acumen. Thus, his daughter had to turn to public records, personal accounts, interviews and other "outside" sources to get full details for this exciting, poignant and, at times, heartbreaking biography. She describes historic events - from the Civil War through World War 2 - as background for her father's adventures, which ranged from founding a Maine telephone company at the age of 24 to being established as a respected New York venture capitalist, making deals with famous Wall St. financiers. But the biography is far deeper than just that of a shrewd Downeast business genius. It's the story of a family, a family like many others, with strengths and weaknesses, joys and sorrows, warmth and coldness. Besides being a book that every lover of Maine history and Maine folk will enjoy, it's a book many could learn from when writing a history of their own families and ancestors.

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(Robert Skole is a reporter, foreign correspondent and author of "Jumpin' Jimminy -- A World War II Baseball Saga: American Flyboys and Japanese Submariners Battle It Out in a Swedish World Series.")

Rose Bird Waterman has done more than create a loving picture of her remarkable father. She has contained in his story some of the amazing sweep of a 91 year life - from only 4 years after the American Civil War to the dawn of the 1960s - but more importantly helped to rescue, for the reader, a golden age in the history of the State of Maine. If social and political change forms the backdrop to Maynard S. Bird's story, the ways and manners of generations past are brought to colorful life. For those who long for simpler times, Ms. Waterman's narrative is filled with the details of home life, small town ways, tragedy, and good humor straight out of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Whether one is drawn to tales from Maine, stories of small town or 19th century life, or simply would like to spend time in good and honorable company, readers will find Ms. Waterman's fine narrative entertaining and uplifting.

Van Reid

Author of the Moosepath Saga

Rose Bird Waterman has written a poignant and gently humorous biography of her father, Maynard S. Bird, a man who dreamed of possibilities beyond the small Maine town of his childhood. His journey took him from a solid Baptist home to wealth and to poverty in his old age. Along the way he married and was widowed three times, tragically losing his heart and his most beloved bride after less than two years of marriage. This is a story that embodies the American spirit and a book that evokes the mood of optimism that characterized the early 20th century. Highly recommended!