In this breezy history, Earl Smith highlights the stories of more than 50 Maine inventors and their inventions--from earmuffs to chewing gum to machine guns--showcasing the impact they had on the world and the way we live today.

Elizabeth Hand, Stephen King, and Edgar Pangborn put Maine on the map as a place where otherworldly things happen. But they're not the only authors who see the state as a source of inspiration for fantasy and science fiction. Twenty-four writers from Mark Twain to Jack L. Chalker, Gardner Dozois — and, yes, Hand, King, and Pangborn — present everything from dark fantasies of the past to a utopian vision of the future.

Although he spends most of the year teaching and painting in Connecticut, internationally recognized artist Normand Chartier's heart lies in Maine, where he rents a cottage on Southport Island every summer and spends hours capturing the essence of the coast in his unique style. Here, the reader will find old farmhouses that grace tidal coves as no modern structure could; lobster boats whose curves and ruggedness match those of the shoreline along which they fish; and spruce-graced, granite shorelines found nowhere else in America.

Eakins, Hunt, French, Morse, Trumbull, et al. and their struggle to make art respectable in 19th-century America. 211 illus.

Long recognized as a classic of American nature writing. This chronicle of a solitary year spent on a Cape Cod beach was written in longhand at the kitchen table, in a little room overlooking the North Atlantic and the dunes. In 1964, the Cape Cod house was officially proclaimed a National Literary Landmark. In 1978, a massive winter storm swept it off its foundation and out to sea.

written by workers of the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration for the state of Maine, sponsored by the Maine Development Commission ...

The modern lobster boat has evolved slowly over decades to become the craft it is today: seaworthy, strong, fast, and trusted implicitly by the lobstermen and women to get the job done and get them home, each and every time, through the most terrifying--and sometimes life-threatening--conditions that the sea can dish up. “Where do lobster boats come from?” “What is the origin of their design?” “Who builds them?” “How do they work?” The story of the Maine lobster boat needs to be told--before the storied history of this iconic American craft slips away forever into the past, on the heels of what may be the last surviving traditional lobster boat builders. Filled with colorful characters, old maritime tales, and fascinating details, this a definitive look at the origins and lore of Maine's most ubiquitous vessel.

In two classic mysteries, an English teacher by profession discovers that sleuthing—of the strictly amateur variety—may be where her truest passions lie. J. S. Borthwick’s debut novel, The Case of the Hook-Billed Kites, takes Sarah Deane, still a grad student at this point, out of her natural New England habitat and into the wilds of Texas, where her maybe-boyfriend is keen on a spot of birdwatching. But birds are not all that she spies through her binoculars, and so the adventures begin. In The Down East Murders, Sarah is glad to be back on home ground, but somebody, it appears, is not happy in any way at all, and Sarah is forced (and secretly thrilled) to put her newfound detecting skills to use again. Praise for the first two mysteries featuring Sarah Deane “Miss Borthwick has a keen eye and a sharp pen.” —The New York Times “Borthwick . . . has the right stuff.” —The Washington Post Book World “A top-notch mystery that also gives the smell of the sea fresh in your face.” —The Houston Post “Very much in the Christie tradition . . . will challenge the wits of the most veteran of armchair detectives!” —Library Journal “Witty, appealing, and thoroughly delightful . . . an ingenious, richly satisfying mixture of the classic elements of a murder mystery.” —Mystery News