BANGOR — When Andrew Perry’s grandmother pointed out that 87-year-old author Donn Fendler was signing books during the recent Wallagrass Summer Festival, the 8-year-old was ready with a question.
“Are you that kid?” he asked the man who co-wrote “Lost on a Mountain in Maine” 75 years ago about the nine days he spent lost on Mount Katahdin at age 12.
Indeed he was that kid, and so the young man and his siblings began a short conversation with Fendler, who was in northern Maine visiting with friends in early August.
Book signings and talks to classes of schoolchildren are two of the many ways Donn Fendler has spent his yearly stays in Maine, things he does “to thank the people of Maine for looking for me” and keeping him in their thoughts and prayers all those years ago. The boy was found after he came out of the woods near a camp in the Katahdin area, malnourished but otherwise healthy.
Readers and new fans looking to meet Fendler may number a few at a time or more than 200 over the course of a day, so some of his book signings have become annual events.
Cole Land Transportation Museum will hold its yearly Donn Fendler Day on Saturday, Sept. 20, at 405 Perry Road in Bangor. He will sign books beginning at 11 a.m. and give a talk at 1 p.m., signing more books afterward.
Retired after a career in the U.S. Army and a longtime resident of Tennessee, Donn Fendler shares a story that has been kept alive for decades by Maine schoolteachers who have used the slim volume he co-authored with Joseph Egan but never made a penny from.
His talks emphasize how his Boy Scout training and faith that he would be OK helped him throughout his ordeal, and also recommend that young people and others who go hiking in the wilderness do something he didn’t do — stay with his group.
Museum founder Galen Cole, who remembers when the search for Fendler made the newspapers daily in 1939, once flew with Fendler and then-Conservation Commissioner Pat McGowan as pilot over the Katahdin area, and looks forward to Fendler’s visit every year.
Participants in the annual event at the museum bring their own copies of Fendler’s book for an autograph or purchase a paperback copy at the museum. This year, there also will be a copies of the recent book Fendler co-authored with Lynn Plourde, illustrated by Ben Bishop — a 72-page graphic novel called “Lost Trail: Nine Days Alone in the Wilderness.” The book, published by Down East Books, costs $14.95.
Fendler’s talk is free to attend.
Cole Land Transportation Museum is open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. May 1-Nov. 11. Tickets are $7, free to those age 18 and under. For information, call 990-3600 or visit colemuseum.org.