NOTE: Books available at the WATERBORO PUBLIC LIBRARY will appear in PLUM TELETYPE. Please note that the Waterboro Public Library does not have most of these books! You can check the WPL Online Catalog to find out.
James Otis Kaler, born in Winterport, wrote adventure and patriotic biographies that had great appeal for his boy readers. He wrote more than 150 children's books, many of which were in series and intended for classroom use. He used two pseudonyms, James Otis for most of his books, and Amy Prentice for books written for young readers.
At 13, Kaler left home to become a reporter in Boston. When he was only 16, he provided news coverage of Civil War battles and events. He continued in the newspaper profession as a writer and editor and then in 1881 published the book, Toby Tyler or Ten Weeks With the Circus, for which he is best known. The book has remained in print and is available as a book on tape and was also produced as a movie in 1960.
In 1898, Kaler returned to Maine to become the first superintendent of schools for the city of South Portland that had just separated from Cape Elizabeth. The city later named an elementary school in his honor. In the early 1970s, Kaler's sons and grandchildren presented the city with a collection of Kaler manuscripts, books, and letters. The materials are located in the South Portland Public Library and can be viewed by scholars and interested readers.
Kaler's other books include:
Kaler used the pseudonym Amy Prentice for the following books:
In 1896, Kaler anonymously published The Story of American Heroism, a collection of letters written to him by Civil War Congressional Medal of Honor winners. Extracts from the letters were extensively quoted in Joseph B. Mitchell's The Badge of Gallantry; Recollections of Civil War Congressional Medal of Honor Winners. (1968)
Portland-born Elijah Kellogg, Jr., was both a Congregationalist minister and the son of a minister. After graduating from Bowdoin in 1840 and Andover Theological Seminary in 1847, Kellogg led churches in Harpswell (1844-54) and Topsham (1871-1901), and in fact there's an Elijah Kellogg Congregationalist Church in Harpswell now, named for him. Bowdoin College offers an online collection guide to Kellogg's personal papers.
Kellogg didn't begin writing children's books until he was over 50 years old, but once he started, he was prolific! His books are considered "boys'" books and were written in several series, as follows:
(about the Maine Coast): The Ark of Elm Island (1868), Charlie Bell: The Waif of Elm Island (1868/1896), Lion Ben of Elm Island (1868), The Boy Farmers of Elm Island (1869), The Hard-Scrabble of Elm Island (1870), The Young Ship-Builders of Elm Island (1870).
: Arthur Brown: The Young Captain (1870, vol. 1), The Young Deliverers of Pleasant Cove (1871, vol. 2), The Cruise of the Casco (1871, vol. 3), The Child of the Island Glen (1872, vol. 4), John Godsoe's Legacy (1873, vol. 5), The Fisher Boys of Pleasant Cove (1874, vol. 6).
(about Bowdoin College): The Spark of Genius; or, The College Life of James Trafton (1871), The Sophomores of Radcliffe; or, James Trafton and His Bosom Friends (1871), The Whispering Pine; or, the Graduates of Radcliffe Hall (1872), Winning His Spurs; or, Henry Morton's First Trial (1872), The Turning of the Tide; or, Radcliffe Rich and His Patients (1873), A Stout Heart; or, the Student From Over the Sea (1873).
: Saved By the Wind; or, The Poor Boy's Future (1874, vol. 1), Wolf Run; or, the Boys of the Wilderness (1875, vol. 2), Brought to the Front; or, The Young Defenders (1875, vol. 3), The Mission of Black Rifle; or, On the Trail (1876, vol. 4), Forest Glen; or, the Mohawk's Friendship (1877, vol. 5), Burying the Hatchet; or, the Young Brave of the Delawares (1878, vol. 6).
: Good Old Times; or, Grandfather's Struggle for a Homestead (1877/1905/1986; set in Gorham, Maine), The Unseen Hand; or, James Renfew and His Boy Helpers (1881).
: Norman Cline (1869), A Strong Arm and a Mother's Blessing (1880), The Live Oak Boys; or, The Adventures of Richard Constable Afloat and Shore (1882).
Wilmot B. Mitchell wrote a book about Elijah Kellogg called Spartacus to the Gladiator, published in 1903.
Kate Kennedy, a Cape Elizabeth resident, is the author of two books. Her first published book is End Over End (2001), a mystery novel that tells the story of adolescent Ivory and the effect her murder has on her small town. Her second book, More than Petticoats: Remarkable Maine Women (2005), contains brief biographies of 13 Maine women, all of whom were born before 1900. Her work has been published in The Island Journal, the annual publication of the Island Institute and in literary magazines. She has also edited the Maine Island Trail Association's annual guidebook. She is currently writing a novel set in the 1950s southwest.
Kennedy grew up in Santa Monica, California and has an undergraduate degree from Wellesley and a master's degree from University of California, Los Angeles. She has lived in Maine since 1977 and taught writing at Portland High School for 20 years. One of the Maine Arts Commission's artists, she has conducted writing workshops at Colby College, the University of New England and at other locations throughout the state.
Lillian Kennedy is a family law attorney and poet who was born in Maine, raised on Munjoy Hill in Portland, Maine, and lives nows in Auburn. She received a B.A. in philosophy from the University of Southern Maine in 1975 and a J.D. from the University of Maine School of Law in 1978. She's an MFA student at USM's Stonecoast.
Her poetry appears regularly in Wolf Moon Press and has been published in Animus, Cider Press Review, and The Cafe Review, among others. She has had work exhibited with the sculpture of Kerstin Engman at the USM Lewiston-Auburn College gallery in 2003 and included in Off the Record (2004), an anthology of poetry by lawyers. She co-edited A Sense of Place, Collected Maine Poems (2002, with Alice Persons and Nancy Henry). Her books of poetry include Tomorrow After Night (2003), Notions (2004), and a chapbook, Leavings, (2005), a collection of poems by Elizabeth Hobbs, Patricia Smith Ranzoni, Elizabeth Moser and Kennedy. Some of Kennedy's poems are also available online at Poetry Super Highway and Polyphony.
Susan Kenney was born in Summit, NJ, in 1941, received a BA from Northwestern University in 1963, and an MA and a PhD from Cornell in 1964 and 1968 respectively. She's taught at Colby College since 1968, becoming a full professor of English in 1986 and director of the creative writing program in 1991. She writes two kinds of books, academic mysteries featuring professor/sleuth Roz Howard, and a continuing saga of the Boyd family, laced with issues of illness and mortality. There's an article on Kenney in Great Women Mystery Writers (1994; ed. Kathleen G. Klein).
Kenney's Roz Howard mysteries are Garden of Malice (1983/84/92), in which academic-turned-sleuth Roz Howard travels from Vassar College to edit some newly discovered diaries in England, but finds that all is not what it seems at Montfort Abbey, the restored medieval estate with the bizarre gardens; Graves in Academe (1985/86), One Fell Sloop (1990). Her Boyd Family novels, which deal with cancer and its effects on a marriage, are In Another Country: A Novel (1984/85) and Sailing (1987/88), based on Kenney's real life experience of caring for her husband over a 15-year period.
Her short story, "Murder in the Wind: A Mystery Jigsaw Puzzle" (1993), forms the basis for a jigsaw puzzle.
More info on Kenney is available at Colby's website.
Kimball, who grew up in Auburn, Mass., moved to Maine in the early 1970s and lives now in Cape Neddick with his wife Glenna. He worked as a stevedore, milk deliverer, elementary school music teacher, and rock musician before Stephen King helped him get his first novel, Firewater Pond, published in 1995. He teaches at the summer Stonecoast Writers' Conference in Maine.
Kimball's works include:
Plays include:
More information on the plays is available on his website.
Kimball also wrote three episodes for the TV show "Monsters" (in 1988, 1989, 1990).
The Maine Sunday Telegram featured Kimball in an April 2000 "Audience" section. A short interview appears in a Jan. 2007 issue of The Wire. Details of Kimball's speaking availability and contact info are online. More info on his books is available through his website.
Writer/environmentalist Robert Kimber lives in Temple, Maine with his wife Ruth Kimber. His book, Upcountry: Reflections from a Rural Life (1991) celebrated the 20 years he and his wife had lived on their farm in Temple. Two other books published in 1991 are his Made for the Country and A Canoeist's Sketchbook (scroll down) (republished in 2004).
His essay, "No Night Life," was published in The Quotable Moose (1994). In Living Wild and Domestic: The Education of a Hunter-Gardener (2002), Kimber discusses his philosophy and ethics of interacting with the natural world. He is also one of three editors of On Wilderness: Voices from Maine (2003). His essays/articles have appeared in Field and Stream, Down East and Country Journal.
Kimber and his wife Ruth have translated numerous books from German into English. During the 1980s and 1990s they were the translators for many Barron's Educational Series pet and pet care books. Their other translations include: A Prelude to the Long Happy Life of Maximilian Goodman: A Novel (1975); Tai Ki: To the Point of No Return (1976); The First American Constitutions: Republican Ideology and the Making of the State Constitutions in the Revolutionary Era (1980); Vanishing Eden: The Plight of the Tropical Rainforest (1990); The Thirty Years Peace (1991); Intellectuals in Exile: Refugee Scholars and the New School for Social Research (1993); Logic of Failure (1997); Stars and Planets: Identifying Them, Learning about Them, Experiencing Them (2000).
Kimber is an advocate for Maine's natural and wild lands. He is actively involved in the Western Maine Audubon Society and the Tumbledown Conservation Alliance. He is on the citizen advisory committee for The Northern Forest Lands and is on the national advisory committee for Americans for a Maine Woods National Park. His Nov. 2005 op-ed on the Plum Creek development planned for the Moosehead Lake region of Maine are available on the Natural Resource Council of Maine's website. Kimber was one of the recipients of the Natural Resources Council's 2003 Environmental Award.
Stephen King (aka Richard Bachman) is the pre-eminent Maine modern popular fiction writer. He was born in Portland, attended Durham Elementary School and Lisbon High, and graduated from the University of Maine-Orono with a degree in English in 1970. He married another Maine writer, Tabitha Spruce, in 1971. His first grandchild, Ethan King, was born in 1998. Lots more biographical information on King is available on his own website.
Stephen King's own Web site offers sections called the rumors, the answers, the man, the past, the now, the future, as well as contact info, links, and downloads of e-books.
The Waterboro Public Library has two shelves of King's books, so you're likely to find what you want. The library also has a copy of Feast of Fear: Conversations with Stephen King, edited by Tim Underwood and Chuck Miller (1989). George Beahm's Stephen King from A to Z (1998) is another source of information about the author, with many photos. Of special note is a teacher's guide for some of King's horror short stories, with background on King, class questions, many interview quotes, comments on what makes King's fiction worthy of study, suggested readings by other writers. Reading Stephen King (1997), by Brenda Miller Power et al., contains essays addressing the teaching of King's works in high school classrooms. Stephen Spignesi's The Lost Work of Stephen King (1998) may be of interest to those who want to read King's unpublished works, fragments, alternative versions, etc. The Stephen King Universe: A Guide to the Worlds of the King of Horror (2001), by Stanley Wiater, Christopher Golden, and Hank Wagner, provides descriptions of the significant action in King's works and a discussion of his recurring themes. Salon has available an excerpt on King and his work from The Salon.com Reader's Guide to Contemporary Authors. WPL has a children's biography of King called Stephen King: Master of Horror (1992), by Anne Saidman.
For information on Stephen King's reading and book signing schedule, call (212) 727-4810 or, in Maine, check with Betts Bookstore in Bangor: (207) 947-7052.
King announced in an interview in the 27 Jan. 2002 Los Angeles Times that after he published five more books, he would end his career in publishing: "Then that's it. I'm done. Done writing books," he told the paper. The horror writer's own nightmare is to "finish up like Harold Robbins," whose career declined precipitously after years as a best-selling pulp novelist. You can read more about King's decision to stop writing.
King's novels include:
Other works by King include:
Works written by King under the pseudonym Richard Bauchman include:
A collection of King stories, novels, etc., titled The Essential Stephen King: The Greatest Novels Short Stories, Movies, and Other Creations of the World's Most Popular Writer, edited by Stephen J. Pignesi, was published in June 2001. Robin Furth's Stephen King's The Dark Tower: A Concordance, Vol. 1 was published in 2003 and is "the definitive guide to the first 4 volumes in the epic fantasy series."
King and Connecticut resident Stewart O'Nan penned Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season, published just after the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004. It's described as a "diary-like account of the team's improbable Cinderella story that was fueled by early-season hope, mid-season despair and late-season euphoria."
Tabitha (Tabby) King might be best known for being the wife of Stephen King, but she is also a novelist, photographer, community leader, and philanthropist. A native of Old Town, Maine, Tabitha King attended the University of Maine in Orono, where she met her husband at a writing seminar. The were married in Jan. 1971 and have three grown children. Tabitha King lives in Bangor with her husband.
Tabitha King has been awarded the Maine Humanities Council Constance H. Carlson Public Humanities Prize (1998), for her "devoted efforts [which] have kindled a passion for reading and a love of ideas in Maine people of all ages. We honor her activism in supporting reading and literacy programs for Mainers of all ages, her leadership and advocacy on behalf of institutions that bring the joy of learning to a wider public, and her powerful work as a writer." She also received the Maryann Hartman Award (2001), which recognizes women whose achievements provide inspiration to other women. She and Stephen King run the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation, which is well-known in Maine for its generosity to libraries and organizations involved with literacy, community services and the arts. Tabitha King has also been cited for her leadership of a capital campaign to renovate the Bangor Public Library and her role as a trustee of Maine Public Broadcasting. As a member of the Maine Humanities Council Board, she encouraged the Council to reach out to at-risk children, adult new readers, library patrons in rural communities, incarcerated men and women, the elderly and the disabled.
Her novels include:
She also wrote the foreword to the 1991 edition of Stephen King's Carrie; published Playing Like A Girl: Cindy Blodgett and the Lawrence Bulldogs Season of '93-'94 (1994), a non-fiction work about the high school basketball career of Cindy Blodgett; and photographed the coffee-table book Mid-Life Confidential: The Rock Bottom Remainders Tour America With Three Chords and an Attitude (1994), edited by Dave Marsh, about the all-author band in which she and Stephen King perform. Other members include Amy Tan, Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson, Tad Bartimus, Barbara Kingsolver, Robert Fulghum, Joel Selvin, Roy Blount, Jr., Matt Groening, Griel Marcus, Dave Marsh, Al Kooper, and Kathi Goldmark.
Klose was raised in New Jersey (where his family still lives) but is now a resident of Bangor and Asst. Professor of Biological Science at The University of Maine's University College in Bangor. He's a regular contributor to the Christian Science Monitor.
Klose is the single parent of Alyosha, adopted from Russia when Alyosha was seven, and the topic of Klose's book Adopting Alyosha: A Single Man Finds A Son in Russia (1999; Chapter 1 of Adopting Alyosha is highly entertaining; very positive reviews of Alyosha on Amazon). (He's since adopted another son, Anton, from Ukraine.) His second book is Small Worlds: Adopted Sons, Pet Piranhas, and Other Mortals Concerns (2006).
Besides writing for the Christian Science Monitor, Klose has also been a contributor to the Brunswick Times Record, Newsweek, The Boston Globe, Exquisite Corpse and other newspapers and magazines, writing on diverse topics such as God in America, the Iraq War, adoption, teaching, and growing up in Jersey City.
Dr. Charles Knickerbocker was born in Syracuse, NY, in 1922, received his B.S. from the University of the South and his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School in 1946. He settled in Bar Harbor, ME, in 1947. An internist, Knickerbocker was president of the Hancock County Medical Society and chief of medicine at the Mt. Desert Island Hospital. Besides practicing medicine, he also has written novels and many magazine articles and stories, often published anonymously or under a pseudonym.
Knickerbocker's books include: The Boy Came Back (1951), Juniper Island (1958), The Dynasty (1962), Summer Doctor (1963), The Hospital War (1966), Hide and Seek: The Effect of Mind, Body, and Emotion on Personality and Behavior in Ourselves and Others (1967), and Fool's Gold (1992; about Lubec, Maine). Additionally, Knickerbocker edited Minister's Daughter: A Time Exposure Photograph of the Years 1903-04, by Francis Wentworth Cutler (1974) and Of Battles Long Ago: Memoirs of an Ambulance Driver in World War I, by G. Ripley Cutler (1979).
Margy Burns Knight, born and raised in Pennsylvania, moved to Maine in 1972 to attend Bowdoin College. She and her family live in Winthrop and she is an ESL teacher in Augusta schools. Knight has also lived and worked in England and Switzerland, and in Benin (Africa) as a Peace Corp volunteer.
Knight's books concern multiculturalism. They are Talking Walls (1992), with its accompanying activity guide; Who Belongs Here?: An American Story (1993), about a Cambodian refugee boy; Welcoming Babies (1994), about welcoming ceremonies; Talking Walls: The Stories Continue (1996), and Africa is Not a Country (with Mark Melnicove, 2000).
The Talking Walls books use walls in various cultures around the world, such as the Berlin Wall and the Great Wall of China, as jumping-off points for discussing the other cultures. All Knight's books are illustrated by Peak's Islander Anne Sibley O'Brien.
Knight and O'Brien have a website that offers information on each of their books, a section for teachers, details on school visits, etc. There's a lesson plan on immigration based on Who Belongs Here? at Teacherlink.
The fifth graders at Cape Elizabeth Middle School host a page dedicated to the Talking Walls project, which "connects literature, geography, culture, and kids." The site has links for unit plans and teacher guides based on the books.
Deb Landry, who was born and raised in Dexter and lives now in Saco, is a youth advocate who writes books and interactive plays for children on issues of social awareness. She's founder and executive director of Crossroads Youth Center in Saco, a non-profit organization "promoting self esteem, self respect and awareness through the performing arts," and in that capacity serves on the statewide committee Communities for Children & Youth. As a member of the Maine legislature's Best Practice Guide Design Team for LD #564, she helped create anti-bullying legislation, which became law in July 2005, and which defines bullying and requires training in bullying prevention for educators and others who work with children. Her community work has been recognized with awards from United Way and Rotary. Previously, she worked for more than two decades as a healthcare administrator. There's more about Landry at Bryson Taylor Publishing and on Thornton Academy's website.
Her books and plays for children include the book Sticks, Stones & Stumped! (2006; illus. by Melissa Pelletier), about bullying; the play For Pete's Sake (2006), based on a book written by Linda Verville, addressing disabilities by looking at the life of a blind dog; and the book Yankee Go Home (2007), about talking to strangers. She's also co-authored, produced and directed the movie Ty, about drug abuse. Landry is available for author's visits.
Romance novelist Amy Lanz, who writes as Amy Frazier, was born in coastal Maine, descended from Nova Scotia Acadians, and lives now in northwest Georgia with her husband and two children. She sold her first Silhouette Special Edition series novel in 1994, titled The Secret Baby (1995/2001 - Babies and Bachelors series). Besides writing, Lanz has also had careers as a teacher, librarian, professional storyteller, and free-lance artist. Her other books include:
She's also written a book in Silhouette's Kensington Precious Gems series, under the name Amy Lanz, Just My Luck (2000).
Dorianne Laux (pronounces "Locks") is a poet and associate professor and director of a creative writing program at the University of Oregon, Eugene. Of Irish, French, and Algonquin Indian heritage, she was born in Augusta, Maine; much of her childhood manifests in her poems, some of which explore the physical and sexual abuse inflicted on her by her mother's male companions.
Laux worked as a gas station attendant and manager, sanatorium cook, maid, laundry attendant, and doughnut holer before moving to Berkeley, California, in 1983, where she began to write seriously. A single parent, she graduated with honors from Mills College (1988, B.A. English) when her daughter was nine.
Her first book of poetry, Awake (1990), was nominated for the San Francisco Bay Area Book Critics Award for Poetry. Her second, What We Carry (1994; American Poets Continuum, Vol. 28), was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry in 1994. Laux received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts (1990) as well as a Bread Loaf Fellowship (1990) and a Pushcart Prize (1986), and one of her poems is included in Best American Poetry (1999).
The same year her second book was published, Laux joined the faculty of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Oregon at Eugene, where she is now program director and associate professor.
Her third book of poetry, Smoke (American Poets Continuum, Vol. 62), was published in 2000. You can read the title poem, "Smoke," online. Her fourth poetry collection, Facts About the Moon: Poems, was published in 2006 and focuses on young women coming of age in America.
"Laux's startlingly candid images and narratives of domestic violence, maternal love and unabashed female sensuality resonate....Not surprisingly, the story of how she transformed herself from working-class single mother to award-winning poet and director of a creative writing program at a major university is no less compelling" (R.D. Pohl, The Buffalo News, 12/5/99).
Laux and poet Kim Addonizio are co-authors of The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasure of Writing Poetry (1997). She and Addonizio, along with Laurie Duesing, co-wrote a book of poetry, Three West Coast Women (1983). Laux also wrote the introduction to Community of Words: A Directory of Literary Readings and Workshops in California (1999, published by Poets & Writers, Inc.).
Laux's husband, Joseph Millar, is also a poet with a blue-collar background (telephone installer and foreman, and commercial fisherman). He teaches in Oregon.
More info about Laux is available on the website, and four poems are at Poetry magazine (2001).
Gary Lawless is a poet, bookstore owner, book editor, and publisher, born in Belfast and living now in Nobleboro. He's co-owner of Gulf of Maine Books in Brunswick (with Beth Leonard; Address: 134 Main St. Brunswick, ME 04011 / Phone: 207.729.5083) and owner of the publishing company Blackberry Books (Address: 617 East Neck, Nobleboro, ME 04555). He's also an associate professor of literature at Bates College in Lewiston, where he teaches courses in creative writing and environmental literature. Lawless has been poet-in-residence for the town of Sitka, Alaska, and for the National Park Service at Isle Royale National Park at Lake Superior, in 1998, and he taught creative writing for five years in MSAD 75's adult education program.
After graduating from Colby College in 1973, Lawless left Maine to spend a year in California studying with poet Gary Snyder. When Lawless returned to Maine, he brought the idea of the budding bioregional movement with him. In 1987, he organised a Gulf of Maine Bioregional Congress, bringing together a diverse group of back-to-the-land and "green" folks from across northern New England and eastern Canada for a four-day series of workshops and presentations.
Lawless has written and edited several books, all with the common theme of ecological integrity and spirit:
Two of his poems are online in MiPoesias Magazine (2004) and three at Polarity magazine (2002). Lawless's poems have also appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal, The Dissident, and Wild Earth, and his work has been collected in Wood Ibis 2: A Journal of Contemporary Shamanism (1975; ed. James Cody) and River Styx Number 6 Roads and Paths (1980; ed. Michael Castro).
Contact info is available through the Maine Arts Commission.
Margaret Lawrence writes historical mysteries set in post-Revolutionary Rufford, Maine. Books include Hearts and Bones (1996); Blood Red Roses (1997); The Burning Bride (1998/1999); and The Iceweaver (2000).
Dorie Lawson, who grew up in West Tisbury (Martha's Vineyard), MA, attended Sidwell Friends high school in Washington, DC ('86), and lived for seven years in Sheridan, WY, lives now with her husband and four children in Rockport, ME. She has a history degree from Middlebury College. Her father is well-known writer David McCullough, author of biographies of Harry Truman and John Adams and of 1776. Lawson is founder and owner of Soldier's Creek Associates, a lecture agency representing writers, including her dad.
Her first book was non-fiction and a labor of love, Posterity: Letters of Great Americans to Their Children (2004). Her second is a mystery novel set in Wyoming, Along Comes a Stranger (2007), starring displaced New Englander Kate Colter. Kate, feeling a bit lonely living in her husband's small Wyoming town, is glad to develop a friendship with her mother-in-law's East coast boyfriend, Tom Baxter, until some suspicious events make her wonder whether Tom is really a dangerous gangster wanted by the FBI.
There's more about her family ties and her first book in the Vineyard Gazette. Lawson was on the Diane Rehm show in 2004 to talk about Posterity; you can listen to the interview.
Lee and her husband Steve Miller are the co-authors of the Liaden Universe books, a romantic space opera. The first three books in the series -- Agent of Change (1988), Conflict of Honors (1988), and Carpe Diem (1989) -- were published in the late 1980s, with the rest of the ongoing series published from 1999-present and including Plan B, Local Custom, Scout's Progress, I Dare (2002), Crystal Soldier (2005; excerpted), and Crystal Dragon (2006). Balance of Trade (2004) takes place in the Liaden Universe but is a stand-alone novel; it won the Hal Clement Award for Best Young Adult Science Fiction Novel of 2004 and is excerpted online. They also have co-written the first book in the new Gem ser Edreth adventures series, The Tomorrow Log (2003), and have published a story collection titled Low Port (2003)
Lee and Miller's first three Liaden books have been re-published as Partners in Necessity (2000), and the two books Local Custom and Scout's Progress were published jointly as Pilots Choice (2001). Their stories "To Cut an Edge" and "A Day at the Races" are published as Two Tales of Korval (1995). Other co-written Liaden stories include "A Matter of Dreams" (1998); "Fellow Travelers," "Where the Goddess Sends," and "A Spell for the Lost" (11/98); "Balance of Trade" (1998); "A Choice of Weapons" (1999); "A Night at the Opera" (in Murder by Magic: Twenty Tales of Crime and the Supernatural, 2004).
Sharon Lee, as the biography on Lee's and Miller's Website notes, was born in Baltimore, attended Univ. of Maryland, Baltimore County, and rose to the pinnacle of her professional career as administrative aide to the Dean of the School of Social Work at Univ. of Maryland's Baltimore City campus. She quit that job to open a bookstore, Book Castle, in 1978, and when that failed went on to deliver tractor trailers, sell cider at the farmer's market, and work as an advertising copywriter. She and Miller moved to Skowhegan, Maine in 1988, then to Waterville, and then to Winslow, Maine, in 1992, where they now live. After moving to Maine, Lee worked for a time at a local paper mill.
Lee has published numerous short stories since 1980, including "Candlelight" (co-written with Miller) in 1995, "The Big Ice," (1999) and "Passionato" (1999), a vampire story, and a novella (in 10 chapters), Barnburner (2002). Until Jan. 2007, she also published a fanzine called "Bloo KangaRue,".
A Bangor Daily News article from 1996 comments on Lee and Miller's re-emergene after a 10-year publishing hiatus.
Levin was born in New York City and grew up in Bridgewater, Conn., NYC, and Washington DC. She lives now on a farm in Lincoln, Mass., summered in Castine, Maine, for over 20 years and in Brooksville ME for over 16 years now. In her spare time, she trains border collies and participated for 10 years in the sheep dog demos at the Common Ground Fair held every September in Maine.
Levin's been a critic and a children's literature teacher as well as a children's novelist (and sheep dog trainer!). Her books include:
Lewis lived in Hallowell and Bath and was Maine's pioneering African-American writer, as well as the inventor of the patented oakum picking machine. Lewis's book, the first Afro-centric history published in the U.S., is called Light and Truth, From Ancient and Sacred History (1836/1844). It consists in part of short sketches of prominent African-American leaders. Lewis believed blacks would never have equality in the U.S. and he became involved in colonization efforts in Haiti, where he died before the Civil War.
Art critic, freelance writer, and poet Carl Little, who lives in Somesville, Mount Desert Island, was born in New York City. He received his B.A. from Dartmouth College, his M.F.A. from Columbia University, and a master's from Middlebury College. He is director of marketing and communications for the Maine Community Foundation.
Previously, Little was director of public affairs and director of the Ethel H. Blum Gallery at College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, and before that was an editor at Windswept House Publishers, owned by writer/publisher Jane Weinberger. He is a former associate editor for Art in America magazine, to which he contributes regularly, and he has written many articles for Art New England, Maine Boats, Homes and Harbors, and Ornament, and was a regular contributor to the Bangor Daily News and the Maine Times. Much of his freelance work focuses on his knowledge of Maine art, an interest he acquired from his uncle, William Kienbusch, the painter, who was a founder of Maine Coast Artists and lived on Great Cranberry Island.
Little and artist/book designer Arnold Skolnick have collaborated on several art books, Little writing the text and Skolnick creating the book's design.
Little's art books and exhibit catalogs include:
Little's poetry book, 3,000 Dreams Explained, was published by Nightshade Press, Troy, Maine, in 1992. A second book, Ocean Drinker: New & Selected Poems, appeared in 2006 from Deerbrook Editions, Cumberland, Maine.
Little's poem "A Reminder (Great Cranberry Island)" from Ocean Drinker is online at Verse Daily.
Longfellow was born in Portland, attended Bowdoin (1822-1825) with Hawthorne, and soon after became the first professor of modern languages there from 1829-1835. He went on to teach at Harvard from 1836-1854. For more biography, check Eclectic Esoterica's Longfellow page, which also has full-text of 21 of Longfellow's poems, including "The Children's Hour," "Evangeline," "Paul Revere's Ride," and "The Village Blacksmith." Univ. of Maine-Fort Kent also offers a list of links to info on "Evangeline" and Acadian history and genealogy. You can learn about the Longfellow National Historical Site in Cambridge, Mass, or about the Evangeline Trail Scenic Drive in Nova Scotia. The Center for Maine History has info about the 1785 Wadsworth-Longfellow home on its web site. Bowdoin College offers an online collection guide to Longfellow's personal papers. The first biography of Longfellow written in almost 50 years, Longfellow: A Rediscovered Life, was written by Charles C. Calhoun and published in 2004 by Beacon Press.
Longfellow's works (poems and books) include:
For more on the 150th anniversary of "Evangeline," see the University of Maine-Fort Kent 150th Anniversary Project, which lists events related to the Acadian celebration.
Sharon Lovejoy -- who writes and illustrates gardening articles and gardening books for children -- divides her time between residences in Cambria, California, and South Bristol, Maine; Country Living magazine published a short piece on Lovejoy's 1930s campground cottage in South Bristol. She and her husband Jeff Prostovich are Founders of Heart's Ease Herb Shop & Gardens, in Cambria.
Fond of both botany and illustration, Lovejoy graduated with distinction in the field of art from San Diego State University. She has worked as a naturalist for the Morro Bay Museum of Natural History and for the Smithsonian Institute in Baja, California, and she frequently lectures about gardening to conferences, symposia, museums, botanical gardens and arboreta, educational institutions, and for professional trade associations and gardening organizations. She writes and illustrates a gardening column for Country Living Gardener magazine and is a regular columnist for AAA's Northern New England Journey magazine. Her articles have also appeared in Family Life, Country America, The American Horticulturist, The Herb Companion, Ranger Rick, and People, Places and Plants, among others.
In 1999, she received the Quill and Trowel Award from Garden Writers Association of America (GWAA) for her magazine writing. She's contributed articles to the following books: Herb Drying Handbook (1993; by Nora Blose; ed. Dawn Cusick); Potpourri and Fragrant Crafts (1996; by Betsy Williams); Growing Fruits & Vegetables Organically: The Complete Guide to a Great-Tasting, More Bountiful, Problem-Free Harvest (1994; ed. Jean Nick, Fern Marshall Bradley); and Herb Tea Book: Blending, Brewing, and Savoring Teas for Every Mood and Occasion (1998; by Susan Clotfelter).
Lovejoy has also been a children's garden design consultant and in 1996 was chosen to design the Children's Gardening Pavilion for the Cincinnati Flower and Garden Show.
Her books for children are:
Her books for adults are Trowel & Error (2003), with 700+ shortcuts, tips, and remedies for the home gardener and A Blessing of Toads (2004), a collection of her "Heart's Ease" columns for Country Living Gardener magazine.
The following two booklets are available exclusively at Heart's Ease Herb Shop & Gardens: Faeries in My Garden, a whimsical booklet (24 pp) and Rosemary, Sweet Rosemary, recipes (28 pp).
Lovejoy's website provides a newsletter, information about her books, a biography, a list of upcoming appearances, a description of her speaking content, a list of suggested interview questions, links to articles about Lovejoy's homes, handouts on various gardening topics, children's garden resources, teacher and homeschool links, seed & plant company links, and more.
Amy MacDonald was born and grew up in Beverly, Mass., the daughter of a pediatrician, and vacationed on Mt. Desert as a child. She graduated from the Univ. of Pennsylvania in 1973. Since 1988 she has lived in Falmouth, Maine with her husband, Thomas Urquhart (former Maine Audubon Society executive director) and sons Alex and Jeremy. Besides being a writer of children's books, MacDonald has also been an editor, a journalist, a consultant in the U.S., France, and Great Britain, and a theatre company publications director. In addition to the books below, MacDonald has written a children's musical, "Stop That Noise!" and is co-editor of a non-fiction adult book, The Presumpscot River Watch Guide to the Presumpscot River: Its History, Ecology, and Recreational Uses (1994). She regularly teaches writing classes to kids in K-6 grades and has served as co-president of the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance board of trustees. Contact info and details about MacDonald's speaking availability are online. Her website has information about school visits, a section for teachers with suggested classroom activities, details about her books, writing tips, and FAQ, and more.
MacDonald's books for children include:
Her first book was The Very Young Housewife (1979), an adult satire of Jill Krementz' books for children, with photos starring MacDonald's then-9-year-old stepdaughter Emily Urquhart. She wrote it using a pseudonym, Del Tremens.
Karen MacInerney, who resides now in Austin, Texas, hasn't lived in Maine but her mystery series is set on an island similar to Little Cranberry Island, which she's visited, and she continues to vacation in Maine annually. She also spent summers as a child on Pool's Island, off the coast of Newfoundland. Previous jobs have included public relations writer and advertising account executive. More about MacInerney on her website. She also has a weblog.
Her Gray Whale Inn culinary/cozy mystery series featuring 38-year-old Natalie Barnes is set in Maine:
aka Alisa Craig (her Canadian nom de plume), McLeod was originally Canadian (born in Bath, New Brunswick) but lived for years in rural Maine. Her many mysteries are imbued with a sense of humor, including the 12 featuring sleuth Sarah Kelling and the 10 that star sleuth Peter Shandy. MacLeod was co-founder of American Crime Writers League and she was nominated in 1988 for an Edgar Award for The Corpse in Oozak's Pond. Malice Domestic honoured her in 1998 with a lifetime achievement award. Mysterious Press offers a biographical paragraph on MacLeod as well as extensive information on some of her books. An excellent overview of MacLeod's series (under both names) is written by Terry Frey Weingart.
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: Had She But Known: A Biography of Mary Roberts Rinehart (1994)
Louis Sandy Maisel is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Government at Colby College, Waterville, where his wife, Patrice Franko, teaches economics and international studies. An Oakland resident, Maisel joined the Colby College Department of Government faculty in 1971. He is a 1967 Harvard graduate and received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1971. His fellowships include ones from Graduate Faculties of Columbia University, United States Steel, National Science Foundation, and a Woodrow Wilson dissertation fellowship.
In addition to teaching at Colby, he has also been a fellow at the University of London, Institute for United States Studies, a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution, a visiting professor at both Stanford and Harvard Universities, Philippine Centennial Distinguished Fulbright Lecturer, and a visiting lecturer at the University of Melbourne and Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
Professor Maisel's books include Parties and Elections in America: The Electoral Process (1987, 1993, 1999, 2001); Jews in American Politics (editor, 2001); Two Parties -- Or More? The American Party System (co-author, 1998/2002); The Parties Respond: Changes in the American Party System (editor, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002); Parties and Politics in the American Past (co-editor, 1994); Rethinking Political Reform: Beyond Spending and Term Limits (co-editor, 1994); Encyclopedia of American Political Parties and Elections (general editor, 1991); From Obscurity to Oblivion: Running in the Congressional Primary (1982, 1986); Congressional Elections (co-editor, 1981); Political Parties: Development and Decay (co-editor, 1978); The Impact of the Electoral Process (co-editor, 1977); Changing Campaign Techniques: Elections and Values in Contemporary Democracies (editor, 1976); The Future of Political Parties (co-editor, 1975).
Maisel has also published numerous articles in academic journals. He is a member of the editorial board for American Review of Politics and was the series editor for Dilemmas in American Politics. He has been an active participant in professional association such as the American Political Science Association and the New England Political Science Association. In 2003 Maisel was appointed the first director of Colby College's Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement. More information about Sandy Maisel's professional activities is located on his curriculum vita.
Kathy Mallat was raised in Sunapee, New Hampshire, and lives in West Lebanon, Maine. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in art education at Plymouth State College. In addition to writing books, she also teaches art at Lebanon Elementary School and is available to speak to school classes. For more information on her, visit Mallat's website. Her books include: The Picture That Mom Drew (1997), which is a collaboration of Mallat's story and drawings with Bruce McMillan's photos; Mallat was a student in McMillan's children's book class at the University of New Hampshire; Seven Stars More! (1998); Brave Bear (1999; Amazon reviews of Brave Bear); Trouble on the Tracks (2001; Amazon reviews of Trouble); Just Ducky (2002); Oh, Brother (2003); Papa Pride (2005). Brave Bear won the Reading Magic award from Parenting Magazine in 1999.
Jackie Manning (pseud. Jackie Summers) is a best-selling historical romance author who lives in Waterville with her husband Tom and their dogs. Besides publishing romances, she also speaks at writers' conferences and has taught adult education courses; and before her writing career, she ran a tax accounting agency. For more information on Manning, as well as a photo and book reviews, visit her page on the Literary Times web site, or check out Manning's home page.
Manning's books include:
Peter Mars, a native of Brookline, Massachusetts, was a Boston area policeman for twelve years, and served several years with the Yarmouth Police Department on Cape Cod before moving to Maine, where he was Chief of Administrative Services for the Kennebec County Sheriff's Office until his retirement in 1997. He graduated from Northeastern University with a degree in criminal justice and police science, and received a masters in public administration and a doctorate in sociology from Columbia University. He has lived since 1980 with his wife Margery in North Monmouth.
His books include The Tunnel (1998), a true crime story about rogue cops who use unorthodox methods to clean up drug dealers; A Taste for Money (1999), a novel based on real events, concerning police corruption and set in the Belgrade Lakes area of Maine; The Key (2000), examining "what can take place when bad things happen to a good cop;" and The Best Suit in Town: A Great Generation of Cops (2001), a non-fiction history of cops in transition in Mansfield, Ohio, co-written with John P. Butler, former Chief of Police of Mansfield. Mars is working on The Chaplain, due out soon.
More information on Mars and on his books is available through his website.
Children's author Jackie Martin was born in Lewiston and grew up in Turner, Maine, where her parents had a dairy farm. She now lives in the college town of Mt. Vernon, Iowa with her husband, Rich. They summer in Maine, where she still has family living. She received her B.A. from Wellesley College (1966) and an M.A. in child development (1971) from the University of Minnesota. Her website has more info. There's also a 2005 profile of Martin online, which explores some of her books' inspirations, as does the 'sidelights' section of her entry in Famous Authors.
Books include:
The Children's Literature Network has information about many of Martin's books.
Martin (a pen name) was born and grew up in Weston, Massachusetts, outside Boston, and now lives in Yarmouth, Maine. In high school, she painted oil portraits for neighborhood clients and participated in local art shows. After high school she attended technical school, working as a drafter. In 1990, she relocated to Maine, and while attending the University of Southern Maine, submitted her stories to magazines. Her first published story appeared in Mostly Maine: A Writer's Journal, and since then she has been published in Pearl, West Wind Review, and Animus, among others. She also began a short story quarterly called Foliage in 1998, which she published for two years.
In fall 2003, she published her first novel, The One True Ocean, about a young widow seeking solace from her grief who returns to her hometown of fictional Cape Wood, in southern Maine. She is working on another novel and a collection of short stories.
In addition to writing, Martin owns a small online jewelry and supply business where she also sells her own jewelry designs.
Her website has more information about her book and other links.
Children's book writer Cherie Mason settled on Deer Isle, after moving to Maine from Chicago. Besides being a writer, she's been an advertising executive, an actress, and an environmental journalist. She serves on the Deer Isle Conservation Commission and considers herself " an evangelist for the environment and wild animals." Books include Wild Fox: A True Story (1993/2004; illustrated by Camden resident JoEllen McAllister Stammen) and Everybody's Somebody's Lunch (1998), illustrated by Portland resident Gustav Moore; a companion book, Everybody's Somebody's Lunch (Teacher's Guide): The Role of Predator and Prey in Nature (1998) is also available.
Born in Hamilton, Ohio, McCloskey attended Vesper George Art School in Boston, served in World War II, and eventually moved to Maine with his wife Peggy, whose mother, children's author Ruth Sawyer, lived in Hancock, Maine. McCoskey is the winner of several Caldecott Medals and Honors. Biographical info on McCloskey is available online, as well as a short Horn Book interview of McCloskey and tributes to McCloskey at Horn Book. An archive of manuscripts, various language editions, ephemera, and original artwork by McCloskey is in the May Massee collection at Emporia State University in Kansas. Robert McCloskey (1990), written by Gary D. Schmidt and part of Twayne's United States Authors series, is a good print source for further information.
McCloskey's books include:
McCloskey died on Deer Island, Maine, on 30 June, 2003, at the age of 88.
McCutcheon, a Maine native, writes children's books and non-fiction reference works. He lives in South Portland with his wife and two children. Besides being a best-selling author, he's also a high-school dropout, former rock band drummer, former literary agent and former bookstore owner.
His books include:
Born in Warren, Ohio, McKinley was the daughter of a naval officer and moved often as a child. Until recently she lived in a 200-year-old cottage in a village two-thirds of the way up the coast of Maine. She now lives in Hampshire, England, with her husband, the English writer Peter Dickinson, longtime assistant editor and reviewer for Punch magazine, novelist, and children's book writer.
McKinley attended Gould Academy in Bethel, Dickinson College (Carlisle, PA, from 1970-1972), and Bowdoin College, graduating from the latter summa cum laude in 1975 and from which she received an honorary doctorate in 1986. At the time her first book, Beauty, was accepted for publication, in 1978, she was living in Brunswick. She's since lived on a horse farm in Massachusetts and in New York City.
Although her first book was published when she was only 26, McKinley has held a wide array of other jobs, including editor and transcriber, bookstore clerk, editorial assistant, and barn manager.
McKinley's home page provides excerpts, bibliography, biography, FAQ, schedule of appearances, an interview, and more.
McKinley's books include:
A detailed page with the Damar timeline and other Damar trivia is online, as is a short and interesting autobiographical essay on McKinley's writing and her personal life.
Massachusetts-born Maine author Bruce McMillan was raised in Bangor and Kennebunk, graduating from Kennebunk High School, and he now lives in Shapleigh. He's written (and illustrated and photographed) over 40 children's books. His interest in biology (he received a biology degree from the University of Maine) is obvious in his books' topics and contents. McMillan's Night of the Pufflings was named Hungry Mind Review's 1996 Book of Distinction. More biographical information on McMillan is available in Lynn Plourde's A Celebration of Maine Children's Books (1998) and through McMillan's web site.
McMillan's books include:
He's also provided photos for Sarah Hale's Mary Had a Little Lamb (1999).
McMillan frequently teaches a course called every semester called "Writing, Illustrating and Publishing Children's Picture Books" at the University of New Hampshire in Durham and Manchester, and he is a sought-after speaker for younger audiences as well.
Wes McNair is a poet and professor emeritus and writer-in-residence at University of Maine-Farmington. McNair was born in Newport, NH, grew up in rural parts of New Hampshire and Vermont, and has lived in Mercer, Maine, since 1987. He received a B.A. degree in English from Keen State College (1963), an M.A. degree in English from the Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College (1968), and an M.Litt. in American Literature from Bread Loaf (1975). He was previously a visiting professor of creative writing at Colby College in Waterville, Maine and professor of English at Colby-Sawyer College (NH) from 1968 to 1987, where he founded their American Studies program. He received an honorary degree from Colby-Sawyer in 2002. More on McNair, including an interview, at his website.
His books include The Faces of Americans in 1853 (1983; resissued 2001), The Town of No (1989/1997), Twelve Journeys in Maine (1992), My Brother Running (1993/1997), The Dissonant Heart (1995), Talking in the Dark (1998), Fire (2002), a book of essays titled Mapping the Heart: Reflections on Place and Poetry (June 2002, part of the Poets on Poetry series), and The Ghosts of You and Me (2006, poems). He also edited The Quotable Moose: A Contemporary Maine Reader (1994) and The Maine Poets: An Anthology of Verse (2003). His work has appeared in numerous magazines and journals, including The Atlantic Monthly, Green Mountain Review, Kenyon Review, New Criterion, New England Review, Ploughshares, Poetry, Sewanee Review, Slate, and Virginia Quarterly Review.
McNair received the Sarah Josepha Hale Award, given to a distinguished writer connected with New England, in 1997. He's also received Rockefeller, Fulbright, and Guggenheim grants. Poems from Talking in the Dark have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and some are included in the 1999 edition of The Best American Poetry. Other honors include an Emmy Award, the Devins Award, and poetry prizes from several magazines. He has twice served on the nominating jury for the Pulitzer Prize in poetry.
The text of McNair's poem "The End" is available online. McNair's personal papers were purchased in 2006 by the Special Collections Library of Colby College.
Alice Mead, a writer of realistic books for children and young adults, was born in New York and has lived in Maine for over 20 years, now in Portland with her husband and two sons. She received her B.A. in English from Bryn Mawr College, an M.A. in elementary education from Univ. of Southern California, and a B.A. in art education from Univ. of Southern Maine. She has taught art and flute in Maine schools and founded a pre-school. She's also founded her own press, Loose Cannon Press, in Cumberland, which has published a couple of her books.
Mead's books include:
Leslie Meier does not live in Maine and has never lived in Maine, but most of the books in her Lucy Stone mystery series are set in fictional Tinker's Cove, Maine, which Meier says is a sort of cross between her residence of Harwich, Cape Cod, Mass., and Camden, Maine, which she's visited. Originally from the Bronx, Meier moved to Cape Cod after she married her husband; there she lived a semi-rural life, keeping chickens, growing vegetables, and making yogurt with milk from a friend's goat. After her kids got older, Meier went to work as a newspaper reporter for her local weekly. Lucy Stone, the protagonist of the mystery series, is a sleuthing wife and mother of four.
The Lucy Stone mysteries include
Summaries of Meier's books are available on our 'Fiction Set in Maine' pages.
Millay was born in Rockland, spent much of her childhood in Camden, graduated from Vassar, and won the 1923 Pulitzer Prize in poetry for The Harp Weaver and Other Poems. One of her most famous poems, "Renascence," is said to have been inspired by the view from the top of Camden's Mt. Battie. Biographical information about Millay, who sometimes wrote articl
