A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812
by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
from Vintage
Drawing on the diaries of a midwife and healer in eighteenth-century Maine, this intimate history illuminates the medical practices, household economies, religious rivalries, and sexual mores of the New England frontier.
The Good Life
by Scott Nearing
from Schocken
This one volume edition of Living the Good Life and Continuing the Good Life brings these classics on rural homesteading together. This couple abandoned the city for a rural life with minimal cash and the knowledge of self reliance and good health.
Rug Hooking In Maine: 1838-1940
by Mildred Cole Peladeau
from Schiffer Publishing
This fresh and scholarly look at a century of rug hooking in Maine demonstrates the significant role non-woven rugs have played in American decorative arts. True Waldoboro rugs are explored in detail and the myth of "Acadian" rugs is explained. Edward Sands Frost manufactured preprinted burlap rug patterns in the mid-19th century that spawned competitions across the country. By the 1880s, summer visitors helped organize cottage industries that turned Maine's rug-hooking talents into income producers. The Arts and Crafts movement in America led to new and exciting styles of rug patterns in Maine, and by the early 20th century, artists pushed the craft of rug hooking in to a fine art, with Marguerite Zorach's designs among the prominent examples. This lavishly illustrated book has over 250 color photographs that highlight the extraordinary story of rugs created throughout Maine and eastern Canada, including popular maritime designs by men of the seas.
Through Blood and Fire at Gettysburg
by Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain
from Stan Clark Military Books
Stand Firm Ye Boys from Maine: The 20th Maine and the Gettysburg Campaign
by Thomas A. Desjardin
from Oxford University Press, USA
The battle for the southern slope of Little Round Top at Gettysburg on July 2, 1863, remains one of the most studied small unit military actions in American history. Maine historian Tom Desjardin has focused his attention on the story of the 20th Maine Regiment since his first visit to Gettysburg at age 10. This stirring work is the culmination of years of detailed research on the experiences of the soldiers in that regiment, telling the complete story of the unit in the Gettysburg Campaign, from June 21 through July 10, 1863.
Desjardin uses more than seventy first-hand accounts of the battle for Vincent's Spur to tell the story of that fight in critical detail. He brings the personal experiences of the soldiers to life, relating the story from both sides and revealing the actions and feelings of the men from Alabama who tried, in vain, to seize the important position.
From the lowest ranking private to the highest officers, this book explores the terrible experiences of war and their tragic effect. Following the regiment through the campaign enables readers to understand fully the soldiers' feelings towards the enemy, towards citizens of both North and South, and towards the commanders of the two armies. In addition, this book traces the development of a legend, as veterans of the fight struggle to remember, grasp, and memorialize their part in the largest battle ever fought on the continent.
The Park Loop Road
by Robert Thayer
from Down East Books
Cache Lake Country: Life in the North Woods
by John J. Rowlands
from Countryman Press
A vivid and faithful chronicle of life in the great Northern Forest and a storehouse of valuable information on woodcraft and nature. Over half a century ago, John Rowlands set out by canoe into the wilds of Maine to survey land for a timber company. After paddling alone for several days--"it was so quiet I could hear the drops from the paddle hitting the water"--he came upon "the lake of my boyhood dreams." He never left. He named the place Cache Lake because there was stored the best that the north had to offer--timber for a cabin; fish, game and berries to live on; and the peace and contentment he felt he could not live without. Cache Lake Country exemplifies the classic American notion that what is most worth finding lies far from the tracks of civilization, and that what is most worth doing demands resourcefulness and wit. Here is folklore and philosophy, but most of all wisdom about the woods and the inventiveness and self-reliance they demand. The author explains how to make moccasins, barrel stoves, lean-to shelters, outdoor bake ovens, sailing canoes, and hundreds of other ingenious and useful gadgets, all illustrated in the margins with 230 enchanting drawings by Henry B. Kane.
Waterfalls of the White Mountains: 30 Hikes to 100 Waterfalls
by Bruce R. Bolnick
from Backcountry Guides
The Lobster Coast: Rebels, Rusticators, and the Struggle for a Forgotten Frontier
by Colin Woodard
from Penguin (Non-Classics)
This lively book reveals a little known culture that predates the Pilgrims and has remained true to the earliest version of the American Dream: an egalitarian, self-reliant republic. The self-sufficient lobstermen of the Maine coast are models of environmental prudence: at a time when the fishing industry is in crisis, they have conserved the bounty of their waters, even as the once-humble lobster has become a coveted delicacy. How denizens of the coast achieved this balance, even as they withstood assaults from everyone from French raiders to rapacious land speculators, makes for a “stellar informal history ... a primer for conservation and the effects of bad politics” (The Kingston Observer).
One Man's Owl: (Abridged Edition)
by Bernd Heinrich
from Princeton University Press
This engaging chronicle of how the author and the great horned owl "Bubo" came to know one another over three summers spent in the Maine woods--and of how Bubo eventually grew into an independent hunter--is now available in an edition that has been abridged and revised so as to be more accessible to the general reader.
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