MAINE & NEW ENGLAND FICTION, LITERATURE & FILM CRITICISM

A compelling regional and historical study that transforms our understanding of film history, Amateur Movie Making demonstrates how amateur films and home movies stand as testaments to the creative lives of ordinary people, enriching our experience of art and the everyday. Here we encounter the lyrical and visually expressive qualities of films produced in New England between 1915 and 1960 and held in the collections of Northeast Historic Film, a moving image repository and study center that was established to collect, preserve, and interpret the audiovisual record of northern New England. Contributors from diverse backgrounds examine the visual aesthetics of these films while placing them in their social, political, and historical contexts. Each discussion is enhanced by technical notes and the analyses are also juxtaposed with personal reflections by artists who have close connections to particular amateur filmmakers. These reflections reanimate the original private contexts of the home movies before they were recast as objects of study and artifacts of public history. Paperback. 290 pgs.

When As The Earth Turns was first released in 1933 it became an immediate best seller, went through many editions and was translated and read worldwide. In this portrayal of Maine rural life in the 1920s, we feel the uncertainties and tensions of our modern world through the children of the Shaw family. Some are lured away from the farming life, some struggle to make it work. Ultimately, through it celebrates the spirit of those who survive by an intelligence born of their deep connection to the land and its Seasons. paper,1933,339 pages

The historical novel usually concerns itself with persons who have made a major imprint on their times and on the minds of posterity. They are written about generals and statesmen and kings and queens. But for every general there were ten thousand soldiers, and for every king or queen there were multitudes of subjects. An historical novel may as justly deal with the lives of people who were important not individually but in the mass. This novel tells the story of the founding of a small Maine town, by ordinary people, in what then was an ordinary way. It was the way in which towns were founded from the Atlantic seaboard west to the great plains, by stripping off the forest and putting the land to work. These people were not as important as the founders of the country, nor was the town they founded as important as New York. But people like them made this country, and towns like Union, Maine, were and are the soil in which this country's roots are grounded. 866 Pgs Paperback

E. B. White (1899 1985) is best known for his children's books, Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little, and The Trumpet of the Swan. Columnist for The New Yorker for over half a century and co-author of Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, White hit his stride as an American literary icon when he began publishing his 'One Man's Meat' columns from his saltwater farm on the coast of Maine. In E. B. White on Dogs, his granddaughter and manager of his literary estate, Martha White, has compiled the best and funniest of his essays, poems, letters, and sketches depicting over a dozen of White's various canine companions. Featured here are favorite essays such as 'Two Letters, Both Open,' where White takes on the Internal Revenue Service, and also 'Bedfellows,' with its 'fraudulent reports'; from White's ignoble old dachshund, Fred. ('I just saw an eagle go by. It was carrying a baby.') From The New Yorker's 'The Talk of the Town' are some little-known Notes and Comment pieces covering dog shows, sled dog races, and the trials and tribulations of city canines, chief among them a Scotty called Daisy who was kicked out of Schrafft's, arrested, and later run down by a Yellow Cab, prompting The New Yorker to run her 'Obituary.' Some previously unpublished photographs from the E. B. White Estate show the family dogs, from the first collie, to various labs, Scotties, dachshunds, half-breeds, and mutts, all well-loved. This is a book for readers and writers who recognize a good sentence and a masterful turn of a phrase; for E. B. White fans looking for more from their favorite author; and for dog lovers who may not have discovered the wit, style, and compassion of this most distinguished of American essayists. Paperback. 178 pgs.

Every English language writer knows "The Elements of Style". The book's mantra, make every word tell, is still on point. This much-loved classic, now in its 4th edition, will forever be the go-to guide when in need of a hint to make a turn of phrase clearer or a reminder on how to enliven prose with the active voice. Kalman's 57 illustrations give the revered work a jolt of new energy! Paperback. 156 pgs.

The poetry of Leo Connellan is the poetry of perserverance. He survived the loss of his mother as a child, and, forgoing a college degree, he entered the arena of American literature, whose territory isoften overseen only by academics. However, his books continue to speak for themselves, and more importantly, not just for poetry, but for America herself.

Venture back in time to December 1620, as a group of pilgrims from England celebrate their first American Christmas—aboard the Mayflower. Having arrived barely a month earlier with no time to build adequate shelter on land, the were forced to weather the harsh winds and rains of New England winters onboard ship. Harriet Beecher Stowe captures their struggle for survival and their celebration of spirit under the harshest conditions with the same attention to cultural detail as her renowned bestseller, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Originally published in 1876 in a collection of Stowe’s short stories, First Christmas is now finally available on its own. Hardcover 64 Pages

Imagine Sir Arthur Conan Doyle dressed up as Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie playing Miss Marple, and Charles Dickens himself as Marley's Ghost! This unique collection features 35 paper dolls of famous authors, each with costumes depicting characters from their best known works - plus a few surprises. Full color with quotes throughout. Paperback.127 pgs.

E.B. White's timeless "One Man's Meat," now in print for fifty-five years, continues to delight readers with the renowned essayist's succinct, witty observations on daily life at a Maine saltwater farm. In his new foreword to the book, Roger Angell of "The New Yorker" notes, "...the book has always had the heft, the light usefulness, of a bushel basket, carrying a raking of daily or seasonal notions, and, on the next short trip, the heavier burden of an idea. Strewn with arrands and asterisks, farming tips and changes of weather, notes on animals and neighbors and statesmen, "One Man's Meat" is too personal for an almanac, too suphisticated for a domestic history, too funny and self-doubting for a literary journal. Perhaps it's a primer: a countryman's lessons that convey, at each reading, a sense of early morning clarity and possibility."

From begger and thief in 17th Century England to a respected landowner in the colonial Province of Maine, Marietta Lufford is one of the most courageous women in American literature. Her reminisces as an undaunted, troubled child in London, her adventurous journey to the New World and the tribulations of surviving there make this novel a most compelling read. The incidents in her life are factual, weaving in and out of here life, dominating her world and revealing a documentary of life in the 1600s. Virginia Chute has masterfully written a history of that period in the language of the times. 2006 paperback, 429 pages.

Originally published in 1960, this classic Maine novel is back in print. According to Down East Magazine, "Ruth Moore can always be counted on to tell the truth about life on the coast and the offshore islands which are central to her fiction." 1988 paperback, 381 pages.