“Writing about a departed friend is never an easy assignment. When the good friend, by virtue of his special genius, belongs in public domain, the task becomes a responsibility. I expect I knew Kosti Ruohomaa as well as it was possible to know that uncommon, problem-wracked man. He was scrupulously honest about himself. He deserves nothing but honesty from me.”
So begins Lew Dietz’s remarkable tribute to photographer Kosti Ruohomaa, published in the October 1969 issue of Down East. Dietz, a prolific writer and one of this magazine’s founding editors, worked closely alongside Ruohomaa, the subject of a fascinating exhibit at the Penobscot Marine Museum, previewed in our September 2022 issue. Dietz’s reflection on his friend’s gifts, magnetism, and trials became the basis for his text in the book Night Train at Wiscasset Station, the definitive collection of Ruohomaa’s work, first published in 1977. Click here to read Dietz’s poignant 1969 essay about a one-of-a-kind Maine artist.