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The list on this page is from:

THE MIRROR OF MAINE, ONE HUNDRED DISTINGUISHED BOOKS THAT REVEAL THE HISTORY OF THE STATE AND THE LIFE OF ITS PEOPLE

Edited by Laura Fecych Sprague

Foreword by Eliot H. Stanley

Published by The University of Maine Press and The Baxter Society, in association with The Maine Historical Society, Orono and Portland, Maine, 2000



The idea for the top 100 Maine books came from the Baxter Society, the state's only bibliophilic organization. The list covers four centuries and all genres, from novels to histories. We have printed the list here because it is not easily found elsewhere online.

The books are listed in publication date order, earliest to most recent.

  1. Samuel De Champlain (1567-1635) Les Voyages du Sieur de Champlain, 1613
  2. Christopher Levett (1586-1630) A Voyage into New England, 1628
  3. John Josselyn (fl.1630-1675) An Account of Two Voyages to New-England, 1674
  4. John Dean (1679-1761) A Narrative of the Sufferings, Preservation and Deliverance, of Capt, Dean and Company, 1711
  5. John Gyles (1678?-1755) Memories of Odd Adventures, Strange Deliverances, &c, in the Captivity of John Gyles, 1736
  6. The Reverend Samuel Deane (1733-1814) The New-England Farmer, 1790
  7. Samuel Freeman (1743-1831) The Town Officer; or, the Power and Duty of Selectmen, Town Clerks, Town Treasurers, 1791
  8. Supply Belcher (1751-1836) The Harmony of Maine, 1794
  9. Henry Tufts (1748-1831) A Narrative of the Life, Adventures, Travels, and Sufferings of Henry Tufts, 1807
  10. Moses Springer (1796-1870?) The Maine Farmer's Almanack, 1819
  11. Maine The Constitution of the State of Maine and that of the United States, 1825
  12. Sally Sayward Barrell Keating Wood (1759-1855) Tales of the Night, 1827
  13. Moses Greenleaf (1777-1834) A Survey of the State of Maine, in Reference to its Geographic Features, Statistics and Political Economy, 1829
  14. Thomas Cogswell Upham (1799-1872) Elements of Mental Philosophy, 1831
  15. William D[urkee] Williamson (1799-1846) The History of the State of Maine: From its First Discovery, A.D. 1602 to the Separation, A.D.1820, Inclusive, 1832
  16. Seba Smith (1792-1868) The Life and Writings of Major Jack Downing, of Downingville, 1833
  17. Jonathan Fisher (1768-1847) Scripture Animals, 1834
  18. R[obert] B[enjamin] Lewis (d. 1856) Light and Truth, 1836
  19. Charles T. Jackson (1805-1880) First Report on the Geology of the State of Maine; Atlas of Plates, Illustrating the Geology of the State of Main, 1837
  20. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) Evangeline, 1847
  21. William Willis (1794-1870), Editor, Journals of the Rev. Thomas Smith and the Rev. Samuel Deane, 1849
  22. John S. Springer (1811-1852) Forest Life and Forest Trees, 1851
  23. William S. Bartlet (1809-1883) The Frontier Missionary, 1853
  24. Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) The Pearl of Orr's Island: A Story of the Coast of Maine, 1862
  25. Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) The Maine Woods, 1864
  26. Elijah Kellogg (1813-1901) Lion Ben of Elm Island, 1869
  27. John Neal (1793-1876) Wandering Recollections of a Somewhat Busy Life: An Autobiography, 1869
  28. John M. Gould (1839-1930) History of the First-Tenth-Twenty-ninth Maine Regiment, 1871
  29. Mary Agnes Tincker (1831-1907) The House of Yorke, 1872
  30. Charles A.J. Farrar (1842-1893) Farrar's Illustrated Guide Book, to Rangeley, 1876
  31. James Phinney Baxter (1831-1921) The Trelawny Papers, 1884
  32. John Calvin Steven (1855-1940) and Albert Winslow Cobb (1858-1941) Examples of American Domestic Architecture, 1889
  33. Joseph Nicolar (1827-1894) The Life and Traditions of the Red Man, 1893
  34. Celia Thaxter (1835-1894) An Island Garden, With Pictures and Illuminations by Childe Hassam, 1894
  35. Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909) The Country of the Pointed Firs, 1896
  36. Aurelia Gay Mace (1835-1910) The Aletheia: Spirit of Truth, 1899
  37. Bangor & Aroostook Railroad Company (Winfield M. Thompson) In the Maine Woods: A Guidebook for Sportsmen, 1900
  38. Kate Douglass Wiggin (1856-1923) Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, 1903
  39. Fannie Hardy Eckstorm (1865-1946) The Penobscot Man, 1904
  40. George Savary Wasson (1855-1932) The Green Shay, 1905
  41. Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869-1935) The Town Down the River: A Book of Poems, 1910
  42. C[harles] A[sbury] Stephens (1844-1931) When Life Was Young at the Old Farm in Maine, 1912
  43. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (1828-1914) The Passing of Armies: An Account of the Final Campaign of the Army of the Potomac, Based upon Personal Reminiscences of the Fifth Army Corps, 1915
  44. Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950) Renascence and Other Poems, 1917
  45. William Brewster (1851-1919) The Birds of the Lake Umbagog Region of Maine, 1924
  46. William R. Pattangall (1865-1942) The Meddybemps Letters, 1924
  47. Appalachian Mountain Club Guide to Katahdin and the Adjacent Region, 1928
  48. Kenneth Roberts (1885-1957) Arundel, 1930
  49. Booth Tarkington (1869-1946) Mary's Neck, 1932
  50. Gladys Hasty Carroll (1904-1999) As the Earth Turns, 1933
  51. Mary Ellen Chase (1887-1973) Silas Crockett, 1935
  52. Federal Writers' Project Maine: A Guide 'Down East, 1937
  53. Donn Fendler (1926- ) as Told to Joseph B. Egan (1879-?) Donn Fendler: Lost on a Mountain in Maine, 1939
  54. Marjorie Mosser (1918-1981) Good Maine Food, 1939
  55. Frank G. Speck (1881-1950) Penobscot Man: The Life History of a Forest Tribe in Maine, 1940
  56. Ben Ames Williams (1889-1953) The Strange Woman, 1941
  57. Louise Dickinson Rich (1903-1991) We Took to the Woods, 1942
  58. Elizabeth Ogilvie (1917-) High Tide at Noon, 1944
  59. John Gould (1908-) Farmer Takes a Wife, 1945
  60. Henry Beston (1888-1968) Northern Farm, 1948
  61. Robert Peter Tristram Coffin (1892-1955) Coast Calendar, 1949
  62. Elizabeth Coatsworth (1895-1986) The Enchanted: An Incredible Tale, 1951
  63. Robert McCloskey (1914-2003) One Morning in Maine, 1952
  64. E[lwyn] B[rooks] White (1899-1986) Charlotte's Web, 1952
  65. Rachel Carson (1907-1964) The Edge of the Sea, 1955
  66. Lura Beam (1887-1978) A Maine Hamlet, 1957
  67. John J. Pullen (1913-2003) The Twentieth Maine: A Volunteer Regiment in the Civil War, 1957
  68. Ruth Moore (1903-1989) The Walk Down Main Street, 1960
  69. Philip Booth (1925-) The Islanders, 1961
  70. Gérard Robichaud (1908-) Papa Martel: A Novel in Ten Parts, 1961
  71. Gertrud A. Mellon and Elizabeth F. Wilder, Editors. Maine and its Role in American Art, 1963
  72. Philip C. Beam (1910-) Winslow Homer at Prout's Neck, 1966
  73. Eliot Porter (1901-1990) Summer Island: Penobscot Country, 1966
  74. Berenice Abbott (1898-1991) A Portrait of Maine, 1968
  75. Ronald F. Banks (1934-1979) Maine Becomes a State, 1970
  76. William Avery Baker (1911-1981) A Maritime History of Bath, Maine and the Kennebec River Region, 1973
  77. Stephen King (1947-) Salem's Lot, 1975
  78. Deborah Thompson (1934-), Editor, Maine Forms of American Architecture, 1976
  79. May Sarton (1912-1995) The House by the Sea: A Journal, 1977
  80. Joyce Butler (1933-) Wildfire Loose: The Week Maine Burned, 1978
  81. Leo Connellan (1928-2001) Death in Lobster Land, 1978
  82. Helen Nearing (1904-1995) and Scott Nearing (1883-1983) Continuing the Good Life: Half a Century of Homesteading, 1979
  83. Marshall Dodge (1935-1982) and Robert Bryan (Born 1931) Bert and I and Other Stories from Down East, 1981
  84. Hortense Flexner (1885-1984), with Marguerite Yourcenar (1903-1987), translator, Poems for Sutton Island, 1983
  85. Thomas C. Hubka (1946-) Big House, Little House, Back House, Barn: The Connected Farm Building of New England, 1984
  86. Carolyn Chute (1948-) The Beans of Egypt, Maine, 1985
  87. Alaric Faulkner (1945-) and Gretchen Fearon Faulkner (1958-) The French at Pentagoet, 1635-1674: An Archaeological Portrait of the Acadian Frontier, 1987
  88. James M. Acheson (1938-) The Lobster Gangs of Maine, 1988
  89. Barbara Cooney (1917-2000) Island Boy, 1988
  90. Edward D. Ives (1925-) George Magoon and the Down East Game War: History, Folklore, and the Law, 1988
  91. Henry Taft (1926-1991) and Jan Taft (1943-) A Cruising Guide to the Maine Coast, 1988
  92. Bernd Heinrich (1940-) Ravens in Winter, 1989
  93. Alan Taylor (1955-) Liberty Men and Great Proprietors, 1990
  94. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich (1938-) A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on her Diary, 1795-1812, 1990
  95. C. Stewart Doty (1928-) Acadian Hard Times, 1991
  96. Judith S. Goldstein (1940-) Crossing Lines: Histories of Jews and Gentiles in Three Communities, 1992
  97. Bunny McBride (1950-) Molly Spotted Elk: A Penobscot in Paris, 1995
  98. John Preston (1945-1995) Winter's Light: Reflections of a Yankee Queer, 1995
  99. Sanford Phippen (1942-) Kitchen Boy, 1996
  100. Linda Greenlaw (1960-) The Hungry Ocean: A Swordboat Captain's Journey, 1999