Any good factual books worth a read?

[gussie]

My great great great uncle is General John Hunt Morgan so I enjoy reading anything about Morgan's Raiders.....

[woolwiTch]

My favorite Maine-based book is Louise Dickinson Rich's We Took To The Woods. It was published in 1942 and has never been out of print. Louise Rich married and moved with her husband to the backwoods near Rangeley. Her book is about their day-to-day life, including her having their son without help in their cabin in the middle of the winter. She paints a vivid picture of their lives and writes with a lot of humor about town meeting, fishing, cooking, outhouses, logging camps, summer visitors, the Sears catalog, etc.

I also like John Gould's many books about Maine, like Dispatches From Maine, Farmer Takes A Wife, Maine Lingo, Glass Eyes By The Bottle, There Goes Maine, Maine's Golden Road and It Is Not Now: Tales of Maine. He was a very funny writer, with amazing stories about old-time Maine. He lived most of his Maine years in Freeport, Lisbon and Friendship. Here is his obituary: John Gould, 94, Columnist In The Monitor for 60 Years - The New York Times

One more wonderful book is E.B. White's One Man's Meat. White was working for the New Yorker in the 1930s, when he moved with his family to a Maine saltwater farm. He wrote the essays in this book during the late 1930s and early 1940s about his life in Maine. Like the Louise Rich and John Gould books, these essays are of a bygone era, but for Mainers, especially (since we still like to live the simple life), they are still relevant.

[treeluvr]

Originally Posted by moughie

I have Olive Kitteridge By Elizabeth Strout ( set in Maine) on hand from our local library.

Anyone out here read it yet?

Yes, I read it. Don't usually buy books with short stories--I like thorough analysis of the characters, but Elizabeth Strout is a favorite of mine for her novels, so, I got this one--loved it! Strout is way more than good at her craft.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

Just catching up on this thread and it seems Elcarim has been in my office/library except that my bay window looks out into the woods. I wonder how many here have actually been to Pond in the River.

Up on Chamberlain Lake they used to have a dam keeper at Lock Dam every summer. Milford and Dorothy Kidney were there every summer for 29 years. Every Allagash guide knew them. They would open the dam and "sluice" the guides and their sports down into Eagle Lake. Dorothy wrote"Away from it All" in 1969. Later she wrote "Wilderness Journal" and "A Home in the Wilderness." They are fine reading about the end of an era before the Allagash became a government "wilderness waterway".

[retiredtinbender]

I agree on John Gould and Night Train at Wiscassset Station. I have read a lot of the formers books ("Funny About That" was the last)and have the latter in the bookcase. I read and reread "Science of God" by Schroeder. Not sure everyone would think that is factual but.... The last one I read was "A Great and Noble Scheme" about the French expulsion from Canada by the Brits and Scots. Quite dry but still good. Being of Frewnch and Scotch descent I wasn'[t sutre if I wanted to kick my butt or cheer for my new homeland.

[Kracer]

Indian Canoe routes of Maine - David S. Cook describes ancient canoe trails used to travel across an untouched territory that would later be Maine.

All Hell Broke Loose - Wm H Hull gives multiple first hand accounts of a surprise snowstorm of bibilical proportions that occurred in 1940 on Armistice day in Minnesota. Day started out as a bluebird day when many sportsmen had the day off and went out duck hunting unprepared for the onset of an historic blizzard. 52 deaths were estimated to have occured.

Though the book is about personal experiences revolving around the storm, I found the descriptions of period lifestyle, attitudes and technology in a post Depression pre WW2 most facinating. Good lesson on weather, in places where weather can be extreme, as in Maine.

[moughie]

Kosti Ruohamaa had an amazing eye for capturing the perfect photo.

[palval1]

Thx to all of you for this great thread! Just found it!