author
Otis T. Howd
A little-known writer tied to the early Paul Bunyan tradition, he helped bring lumberjack folklore onto the page with stories rooted in firsthand familiarity with logging camps. His surviving work offers a lively glimpse of the tall tales that helped shape an American legend.
1 Audiobook
Paul Bunyan and His Loggers
by Otis T. Howd, Cloice R. Howd
About the author
Otis T. Howd is best known as the co-author, with Cloice R. Howd, of Paul Bunyan and His Loggers, an early collection connected to the growing legend of Paul Bunyan. The book draws on the humor, exaggeration, and campfire energy of North Woods storytelling, preserving a version of Bunyan before the character became fully standardized in popular culture.
Contemporary notes about his writing describe him as the brother of Professor Cloice R. Howd of William Jewell College and say that he had traveled and worked among lumberjacks extensively. That background helps explain the texture of his Bunyan material: it feels close to the speech, attitudes, and working life of the logging world that inspired the stories.
Very little biographical information about him appears to be widely documented today. Even so, his name remains linked to one of the early printed efforts to capture Paul Bunyan lore, giving his work a small but lasting place in the history of American folklore.