Background
Frank Pierce Donovan was born on October 4, 1909 in Wayne, Pennsylvania, and graduated from the American University in Washington,
D.C. in 1938. He worked in the freight department at Pacific Electric Railway, then for the Assocation of American Railroads
as a research assistant handling domestic travel for the American Friends Service Committee. From 1946 to 1948 he was an
editor of TRAINS magazine. Mr. Donovan wrote or edited several railroad books, including HEADLIGHTS AND MARKERS : AN ANTHOLOGY
OF RAILROAD STORIES, with Robert Selph Henry (1946), MILEPOSTS ON THE PRAIRIE (1950), HARRY BEDWELL : LAST OF THE GREAT RAILROAD
STORYTELLERS (1959), WHEELS FOR A NATION (1965), a history of the First National Bank of Saint Paul, and several periodical
articles.
Just before his death (September 7, 1970), Mr. Donovan completed a manuscript updating his book, THE RAILROAD IN LITERATURE
: A BRIEF SURVEY OF RAILROAD FICTION, POETRY, SONGS, BIOGRAPHY, ESSAYS, TRAVEL AND DRAMA IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, PARTICULARLY
EMPHASIZING ITS PLACE IN AMERICAN LITERATURE, originally published in 1940 by the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society.
Upon his death, Mr. Donovan's papers were donated to the James Jerome Hill Reference Library in Saint Paul, Minnesota. In
June of 1973, a publications committee was formed to edit and publish Mr. Donovan's revised bibliography; however, the project
was never completed.
Restrictions
Copyright has not been assigned to the California State Railroad Museum. All requests for permission to publish or quote from
manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head Librarian. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the CSRM
as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must
also be obtained by the reader.