Lincoln Colcord

Lincoln Ross Colcord (August 14, 1883 – November 16, 1947) was an American journalist and author of short fiction. He wrote for a number of American newspapers and magazines beginning in 1908, and throughout the Woodrow Wilson presidency (1913–1921).

Early life

Both of Colcord's parents, Jane French (Sweetser) and Captain Lincoln Alden Colcord, came from Maine families with generations-long traditions of life on and around the sea. Jane French delivered her son Lincoln aboard the commercial sailing ship, the Charlotte A. Littlefield, during a storm while navigating around Cape Horn. Aside from time spent on shore at Penobscot Bay or in Searsport, Maine, Lincoln and his older sister, Joanna Carver Colcord, spent most of their childhood at sea aboard the various sailing vessels captained by their father, visiting ports as far away as Hong Kong as part of the merchant trade.

Education and writing career

Jane Colcord tutored her children at sea, and Lincoln's early high school education was by correspondence course. It was only after he entered the high school in his hometown of Searsport, Maine, that he became rooted more to the soil than the sea. Colcord attended the University of Maine, where he is best known for writing the lyrics to the "Maine Stein Song," later recorded by his friend Rudy Vallee. The song was also published as sheet music during the 1930s, leading to a brief battle over copyright. Immediately after college, he was briefly employed as a civil engineer with the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad in Maine.