Great Maine Books (Moose River: 2015, how much, camps)

[BaltimoreBruiser]

Reviving this old thread! Mainly because its the newest of the old threads out there when I searched "books" in Maine

Anyway - as an avid wannabe Mainer for the past 3 years - I have so far had to settle for extremely rewarding and special visits, as well as reading!

I must say I fell in love with the book The Island's True Child by Dorothy Simpson. I have always been enchanted by the past and the 'simpler way of life', and this memoir was really great to read.

I've also picked up and started reading We Took To the Woods by Louise Dickinson Rich. I have not finished it yet.

Currently ordered today:
The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett
A Maine Hamlet by Lura Beam
Northern Farm by Henry Beston
Green Mountain Farm by Elliot Merrick

I got those titles from this thread. But wanted to kick this back up for any new suggestions over the past 9 years!

Specifically I'd love to find more memoirs about living in Maine from the early-mid 1900s.

[Last1Standing]

I didn't know this thread existed. Thanks for reviving it!

[n8ivmainah]

Originally Posted by Last1Standing

I didn't know this thread existed. Thanks for reviving it!

Me either! And I've been going back to the beginning with one browser window and going to amazon wiht another!

[n8ivmainah]

Recently came across Bruce Robert Coffin and Paul Dorion. I enjoy their stuff too. Easy reading and fun.

[n8ivmainah]

Oh and Mike Bond, "Killing Maine" is a good story too

[Maine Writer]

I'm reading Sacred Instructions by Maine author Sherri Mitchell.



Beneficence by Meredith Hall. She's my favorite instructor as well as an interesting story teller.


My Life inthe Maine Woods: A Game Warden's Wife in t he Allagash Country by Annette Jackson. Free on Kindle right now.

[Amontillado]

I forget where I picked it up, but I really enjoyed "Silas Crockett" by Mary Ellen Chase.

Silas Crockett traces life on the Maine coast through four generations of a seafaring family. This is a one-hundred-year epic filled with vibrant descriptions of the sweeping cultural, economic, and philosophical changes that washed over Maine. Mary Ellen Chase weaves wonderful historical detail with engaging characters so readers understand what it was like for a young wife to join her husband on a months-long trade voyage in 1830, and for a man raised in the tradition of seafaring forced to choose between leaving home for a long voyage or undertaking a risky, but shorter and more lucrative one. Chase draws her characters sharply and provides a voice to the everyday concerns and cares of people who lived and died by the sea. Written in 1935, Silas Crockett remains an important piece of literature for anyone who wishes to understand the rich maritime history of Maine.

[in_newengland]

I read We Took to the Woods a long time ago and it was one of the best books I've ever read.

More recently, Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout is good because of the characters she describes. There's a newer book by her, Olive Again, but it's kind of depressing. She's not from Maine so she doesn't always "get" things, but she's an excellent writer.

BTW Maj. Robert Rogers of Northwest Passage is one of my (notorious?) ancestors. Actually I descend from his sister who sounds like she was a really nice and great person. Have never been able to make my way through the book but should probably try watching the movie.

[BaltimoreBruiser]

Originally Posted by BaltimoreBruiser

I must say I fell in love with the book The Island's True Child by Dorothy Simpson. I have always been enchanted by the past and the 'simpler way of life', and this memoir was really great to read.

I've also picked up and started reading We Took To the Woods by Louise Dickinson Rich. I have not finished it yet.

Currently ordered today:
The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett
A Maine Hamlet by Lura Beam
Northern Farm by Henry Beston
Green Mountain Farm by Elliot Merrick

Finished We Took To The Woods, and it was excellent! Really gave such an incredible and interesting look into living in the forests of Maine in the late 1930s. There's something about these memoirs that really captivates me.

I just started A Maine Hamlet by Lura Beam. I'm not the fastest reader (mainly because so many other distractions in 2021) but I am enjoying it so far. This one goes even further back to the turn of the century. I can't help but to think of my grandparents and their parents when I read these.

[n8ivmainah]

The Maine Hamlet by Lura Beam is an incredible read! Thanks to all of you who posted this. What a great, great memoir. I took so many notes from that book.