Dozens of voices celebrate - in essays, stories, plays, poetry, songs and art - the Franco-American and Acadian experience in Maine. They explore subjects as diverse as Quebec-Maine frontier history, immigrant drama, work, genealogy, discrimination, women, community affairs, religion, archeology, politics, literatture, language, and humor. This is a rich resource and an engaging read, one that will resonate with Many.

$30.00 paperback. 

In this childrens book, Robert F. Kennedy tells the fascinating and dramatic story of Chamberlain's life, focusing on his extraordinary bravery and inspiring leadership during some of the most bloody and decisive battles of the Civil War.

$16.95 Hardcover. 

The years between the patrician leadership of George Washington and the campaign that elected William Henry Harrison marked a period of startling changes in American life. However, most Americans were enmeshed in the myriad of ordinary concerns of their lives and although deeply affected by the great events of the time, their concern with them was intermitten. Jack Larkin describes the often gritty texture of life as these Americans experienced it, weaving the disparate threads of everyday life into the rich, complicated tapestry of American history during this transitional period.

$14.95 paperback. 

Settlement patterns, geography, and the social development of Pejepscot's four towns: Brunswick, Bowdoinham, Harpswell, and Topsham are topics considered in the study of Pejepscot's burying grounds. The book takes a look at this region's mourning culture from its seventeenth-century settlement to the present.

$28.50 Hardcover. 

This narrative takes readers on a leisurely sojourn through a bygone era. leading us along rustic winding roads bordering fields and farmhouses, this book describes networks of canals, corduroy roads, and turnpikes; tollgates, waterwheels, and icehouses; country inns and churches; ingenious and colorful road signs; and massive snow-rollers that packed snow into hard surfaces for great sleds. Here also are engrossing accounts of toll-road owners, sign painters, circus folk, and other entertainers of the period.

$8.95 Paperback. 

This book describes in detail scores of early American tools, and the wooden and metal artifacts made with them. It covers building tools and methods; farm and kitchen implements; the tools of curries, wheelwrights, coopers, blacksmiths, coach-makers, loggers, tanners, and many other craftsmen of the pre-industrial age.

$8.95 Paperback. 

In 1898, Peter Henderson & Company published an abundantly illustrated trade catalog advertising tools, fertilizers, insecticides, and other essentials for the turn-of-the-century garden, farm, greenhouse, lawn, orchard, poultry yard, stable, and household. This excellent reprint of an extremely rare volume features commonly used equipment as a one-horse disc harrow, a "Eureka Steam Cooker," cast-iron field rollers, and hundreds of other items. Informative captions provide a detailed description of each product and its price. Of interest to social historians, this intriguing book will also be indispensable to collectors and antique dealers, of immense value to artists and designers in search of permission-free images, and a delight to lovers of Americana.

$12.95 Paperback. 

This book portrays ordinary Americans swept up in an era of social and geographical expansion. Westward movement was given a boost by the completion of the first intercontinental railroad, and migration from farms and villages to towns and cities increased, accompanied by a shift from rural occupations and crafts to inductrial tasks and trades.

$16.95 Paperback. 

Charles C. Calhoun's biography of Longfellow seeks to solve a mystery. Why has one of America's most famous writers fallen into oblivion? His answer to this question takes us through a life story that reads like a Victorian family saga and reveals the man who introduced Americans to the literatures of other countries while creating a gallery of American icons - among them Paul Revere, John and Priscilla Alden, Miles Standish, the Village Blacksmith, Hiawatha and Evangeline.

$18.00 paperback. 

In this landmark book, the first full-scale biography of Harriet Beecher Stowe in over fifty years. Joan D. Hedrick tells the absorbing story of this gifted, complex, and contradictory woman. Hedrick takes readers into the multilayered world of ninteeth century morals and mores, exploring the influence of then popular ideas of "true womanhood" on Stowe's upbringing as a member of the outspoken Beecher clan, and her eventful life as a writer and shaper of public opinion who was also a mother of seven. She goes on to offer a lively record of the flourishing parlor societies that launched and sustained Stowe through the forty-five years of her career, and the harsh physical realities the governed so many women's lives. Here are Stowe's public triumphs, both before and after the Civil War, and the private tragedies that included the death of her beloved eighteen month old son, the drowning of another son, and the alcohol and morphine addictions of two of her other children. Magisterial in its breadth and rich in detail, this definitive portrait explores the full measure of Harriet Beecher Stowe's life and contribution to American literature, and offers a fascinating look at the pain, pleasures, and accomplishments of women's lives in the last century.

$27.95 paperback. 

John T. Mann is a professional land surveyor with thirty years experience retracing the location of property boundaries in Southern Maine. Most of that work has been within the area formerly known as the Casco Bay or "Kennebec Settlement," one of three primary destinations in New England for "Scotch-Irish" or Ulster-Scots emigrants in the 60 years prior to the American Revolutionary War. Mr. Mann set out to write a report on the background and location of the so-called Means Massacre to commemorate the 250^th anniversary of the 1756 event at Flying Point on Casco Bay. The result is an indepth story of interconnected families, forced by religious, political and economic circumstances to abandon not just one, but two homelands. The introduction of Ulster-Scots immigrants to the Kennebec Settlement intentionally put them at the center of conflict for the domination of North America. These families were forced to confront both the French and Indian alliance and then the British Empire in order to establish a place of their own on the Coast of Maine, America's eastern frontier. The struggle of the Means', and their extended family, to create a homeland with religious and economic freedoms and with rights to property ownership are detailed here in family records and historical research. This is, to a large degree, the story of the birth of America itself. The spirit of Maine's people, and their unique place in New England's history, will be better understood and appreciated by those that consider the times and the voices brought back to us once more in this report.

$15.00 paperback. 

Women of the Dawn traces the lives of four Wabanaki Indian women. (Wabanaki means Dawnland, and it is the collective name given to Algonquin-speaking tribes living near the North Atlantic coast - where the light of dawn first touches the American continent.) These women shared the same first name, Mary - bestowed by Catholic missionaries, but distinctively pronounced by Wabanakais as "Molly." Beyond a name, they shared a tragedy born of European contact. In the face of this tragedy, they all dared to bridge the gap between their own worlds and that of the European strangers who invaded their continent. Yet each woman possessed enough passion and perseverance to resist being swallowed up by the pervasive ways of the newcomers and to hold on to a vital core of herself and Wabanaki culture. As mothers, they bore seeds of continuity, rooted in the past, branching toward the future. The book spans four centuries. Beyond biography, history, and spiritual journey, Women of the Dawn is a challenge to sterotypical views of American Indian women: the individuals in this quartet are gloriously distinct from one another. At the same time, the shared aspects of their lives - especilly mother hood and their struggle against colonialism - show the vital roles that Native women play in the cultural survival of tribes. Each woman, in her own way, faced the question, What of the past will be carried into the future? The answer to that question lies not in this book, but in the lives of all of us, Indian and non-Indian alike.

$12.95 paperback. 

This study was originally drafted during the summer of 1961. Since that time four of the buildings described have been lost, one by fire and three by demolition. A fifth building narrowly escaped being removed as part of an improvement scheme. The original study was revised, and the section on post-1820 buildings expanded, in 1971. The architectural story is carried up to about 1860, by which time Victorian influences had become firmly established. Much of the information comes from local citizens.

$3.00 paperback. 

Dr. Ashby's History of the First Parish Church in Brunswick, Maine, was originally published in the weekly Church Calendar over a period of approximately ten years from 1935 to 1945. The aim of this present edition is to make this extremely interesting and valuable material available in a single readable volume. The period covered starts with the early settlement of Brunswick and ends with the opening of Dr. Ashby's own pastorate of nearly thirty-five years (1917-1951). Dr. Ashby's devotion to his subject and real interest in all those people and personalities who contributed to the building of this church led him to include a great many names and much fascinating biographical material, following the families and collateral relations of all these individuals, even if their lives did not touch this church. The writing (as well as the immense amount of research) is Dr. Ashby's, and reflects his humanity, his wisdom, and his sense of humor.

$10.00 hardcover. 

This book is a collection of poetry and sketches by former high school biology teacher, Claude Bonang, about growing up in Brunswick, Maine. In the fall of '92, Mr. Bonang started a pen and ink sketch of his familie's home on Bowker Street in Brunswick which was where he, his six sisters, and two brothers were born and where they all grew up. As he worked on the sketch, fond memories of his childhood years in that house surfaced in his mind; and upon finishing the sketch he was moved to write two stanzas of poetry about it. This served as the stimulus for the writing of additional verses covering various aspects of growing up. He soon became intrigued with the idea of writing an entire book of verse and illustrating it with pen and ink sketches as well as prints. His brothers and sisters contributed by jotting down anecdotes that they remembered of their growing years involving fames, house chores, humorus incidents, Christmas, and other events. This second edition contains twenty-eight new anecdotal stories in verse (with sketches and pictures) having to do with events and changes that the town of Brunswick has experienced over the years, and six stories in prose dealing primarily with some of the author's life experiences.

$20.00 paperback. 

The title of this book tells you everything you need to know about what you'll find between its covers. The book is nearly 200 pages full of photos and snippets about life on Bailey Island. Part family history, part local lore, and large part photo history, it is a book that will keep you busy for hours thumbing through its pages.

$19.95 paperback. 

In June, 1941 the excursion, Don, was scheduled to take 34 people from Rumford/Mexico leaving Dyer's Cove (Harpswell) for Monhegan Island for a clam bake. The boat disappeared in Casco Bay and all people aboard were lost. While the cause of the sinking remains unknown, the search to solve the mystery continues to this day. Originally published as a series of articles in the Harpswell Anchor, Tragedy in Casco Bay details this terrible event that changed communities and maritime laws.

$16.95 paperback. 

More than a cookbook - a comic delight! When this book was published by J.B. Lippincott Co. in 1972, it elicited some perplexity on the part of book sellers. Should they put it on the "cookbook" shelf or on the one labeled "humor?" The sagacious and discerning put it on both, for if you follow its instructions you will have a delicious dinner - unless you are overcome by irrepressible mirth and, while thus incapacitated, commit the dreaded turnip error, miss the precise moment for cabbage insertion or make some other misstep.

$9.95 hardback. 

Here is history seen from the vantage-point of sailing vessels which sailed the seven seas from the 1840s to the 1870s. The author's sources are the papers which fill the sea chest of Captain John Pennell of Middle Bay, Brunswick, Maine whose wife, Abby, sailed with him on all but two or three of his vogages. Two of their three children were born at sea; one died in infancy, while the other two received their early education in the ship's cabin, their mother receiving her salary as a school mistress on her return from each voyage. The book is more than a biography. It is the story of Brunswick in the days when Maine sea captains were found in every port of the world; of the fortunes of the Pennell family, ship-builders and sailing masters of Brunswick. And it is the story of a New England housewife who baked pumpkin pies and did her Monday washings and educated her children in spite of hurricanes and earthquakes and all the limitations of keeping house in a ship's cabin. One also reads here the story of the Civil War from the perspective of the sailing vessel which must from time to time alter its course because of reports of privateers lurking off the Cape.

$14.95 paperback. 

$10.95 paperback 

$6.99 paperback