Douglas Malloch Biography

Born: Muskegon, May 5, 1877

Died: July 2, 1938

Douglas Malloch became known as the “Lumbermen’s Poet,” both locally and on the national scene.  Born in Muskegon on May 5, 1877, he grew up amidst logging camps, sawmills and lumber yards.  Naturally, Malloch came to love the forests and began writing of lumbering scenes.

At age ten, Malloch delivered newspapers for the Muskegon Chronicle.  About that time he wrote his first poem and it was published in the Detroit News. After leaving school he took a job on the editorial staff at the Muskegon Chronicle.  He remained with the newspaper for 13 years, becoming a reporter and feature writer.  During that period he got to know Charles Hackley quite well. 

In 1903, Malloch joined the staff of American Lumberman, a trade paper in Chicago.  There he wrote a syndicated column.  Often his weekly columns took the form of a poem.  He developed into a nationally renowned humorist, lecturer and radio personality.  Many of his poems were eventually collected into a series of books.  His book “In Forest Land,” became a best seller and was reprinted several times

Much of Malloch’s poetry drew on the solace of the forest as a cure for life’s difficulties.

 “Get up in the timber; the trail and the trees

Will make you a man in a day.

The smell of the soil and the breath of the trees

Will blow all your troubles away.

There’s pine for you, wine for you, hope for you there—

The sun and the moon and the star—

If the ways of the city are not on the square,

Get up in the woods—where they are.”

  (from the publication Timber and Plywood)

Probably Malloch’s best know poem was titled “Today,” a 27-line ode to making the best of life’s daily storms and troubles.

Over the years as a guest lecturer, Malloch traveled over a million miles, addressing trade conventions, business groups and social welfare organizations.  He displayed a homespun philosophy and a genial sense of humor.

One of Malloch’s best know poems locally was “This Thing That Men Call Death,” which he wrote as a eulogy and memorial tribute upon the death of Charles Hackley in 1905.

In 1911, members of the Chicago Press Club named Malloch president of their organization.  On March 9, 1912, Malloch personally welcomed the President of the United States, William Howard Taft, to a reception in Chicago sponsored by the Press Club.

Mr. Malloch married Bertha Keillor of Muskegon in 1898.  She died June 30, 1933. 

Douglas Malloch died of a heart attack July 2, 1938, at age 61.  At the time of his death he served as the managing editor of American Lumberman.   He left behind two daughters and a son.    (Except as noted, the above descriptions were taken from local newspaper accounts.)