author
Hermon Basil Laymon
b. 1888
Best known for a practical 1913 guide to fur farming, this early 20th-century writer focused on the business of raising skunks and other fur-bearing animals. His work offers a vivid snapshot of a very specific corner of rural American enterprise.
1 Audiobook
Fur Farming for Profit, with Especial Reference to Skunk Raising
by Hermon Basil Laymon
About the author
Published as Hermon Basil Laymon, 1888-, he is chiefly known today for Fur Farming for Profit, with Especial Reference to Skunk Raising. Records from Project Gutenberg and the Library of Congress identify that book as his best-known work, and Internet Archive lists it as a 1913 publication.
The book was issued in Spencer, Indiana, by The Laymon Fur Farm Co., which suggests he wrote from direct involvement in the trade as well as from an author's perspective. Its subject is highly specialized, but that narrow focus is part of what makes Laymon interesting: he wrote not as a general nature essayist, but as a practical guide-maker for readers hoping to turn animal husbandry into income.
Little biographical information about him was easy to confirm from reliable online sources beyond his birth year and authorship details, so modern profiles tend to rest mostly on this surviving book. Even so, that single work gives him a distinct place among early American how-to writers and agricultural specialists.