Alvin Van Reid ( - )

Genre: General Fiction

Van Reid's family has lived in Edgecomb since the 1800s. Reid and his wife Margaret Hunter, a marine biologist at the Dept. of Marine Resources in Boothbay Harbor, live with their two children, Hunter and Mary, in a house Reid and his brother built on his family's land. Reid did not attend college, preferring to develop his own style, but he has worked many jobs, including carpet layer, hospital orderly, theatre reviewer and book columnist, and since 1990 has worked at the Maine Coast Book Shop. Reid also performs in local theatre.

Reid's books are a series taking place in the late 1800s on coastal Maine. They have been described as having 'lemonade-at-the-fair' freshness; his vivid characters and humour have been compared with John Irving's; and the books are admittedly influenced by Dickens's The Pickwick Papers. His first book, Cordelia Underwood, or, the Marvelous Beginnings of the Moosepath League (1998) was first serialised in the Lincoln County Weekly newspaper, from 1995-1997, and was quickly picked up by Penguin Putnam, who offered him a contract for a series of three books, which the editors thought would appeal to readers looking for 'gentle fiction.' The second in the series is Mollie Peer, or, The Underground Adventures of the Moosepath League (1999), and the third is Daniel Plainway, or, the Holiday Haunting of the Moosepath League (2000). In 2003, the fourth book, Mrs. Roberto, or the Widowy Worries of the Moosepath League, was published, and the fifth installment in the series, Fiddler's Green, involving an epic wedding, a society ball and a bizarre backwoods feud, in July 2004. He also published Peter Loon: A Novel (2002), another work of historical fiction, set in Maine (Massachusetts at the time), after the Revolutionary War.

For more, check out Reid's website. The Boothbay Harbor Register also provides information about Reid.


Last Update: 08/02/2007

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