Working Waterfront

Reading the ‘priestess of nature’ who took on the ‘elixirs of death’

By Tom Walsh If you don’t know much—or even anything at all—about Rachel Carson, here’s your chance. The Library of America recruited the help of editor Sandra Steingraber in recently publishing a new retrospective on marine biologist Rachel Carson and her seminal role in jump-starting environmentalism in post-World War II… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Two views of what Europeans did to Native New England

Reviewed By Tom Walsh Engraved in granite near the Pennsylvania Avenue entrance to The National Archives in Washington D.C. is this enduring insight: What is Past is Prologue. It’s a thought first penned by William Shakespeare in The Tempest. Written in 1611, it remains a phrase that reminds us that… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Anthology asks: Who are we, and where are we?

3 Nations 3 Nations Anthology: Native, Canadian & New England Writers Valerie Lawson, ed. Resolute Bear Press, Robbinston, Maine, 2017; 176 pages, paperback, $19.95. One phrase to describe what underlies the harrowing political and social divisions in the U.S. these days is “identity crisis.” If I remember right, this term… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Wet feet in problematic places

The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World By Jeff Goodell Reviewed by David Platt We live on a tidal river in southern Maine, on the western side of the Gulf of Maine. We rebuilt our dock a decade ago, raising it a few… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A painful relationship with Maine

Vacationland: True Stories from Painful Beaches By John Hodgman (2017, Viking) You may know John Hodgman from guest appearances as the Resident Expert and Deranged Millionaire when Jon Stewart hosted The Daily Show. You may remember he was the hapless PC up against the mighty Mac in Apple computer ads.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Carving the Maine coast

Members of the committee that helped bring the sculpture “Home and Away," by Robert Leverich, to Castine gather shortly after installation. Creating the Maine Sculpture Trail: Legacy of the Schoodic International Sculpture Symposium, Donna Salisbury and Tilan Copson, editors From 2007 to 2014, sculptor Jesse Salisbury from Steuben and… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The story of Serendipity is the story of wooden boats

Serendipity: The Story of Building a Dream Ship By Peter L. Murray Reviewed by David Platt Harvard Law School must not be as hard as they say. At least Peter Murray had the time and energy, while a student there, to build an entire 30-foot schooner. Before launching he’d even… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Two new cookbooks tied to our Midcoast

Full Moon Suppers at Salt Water Farm by Annemarie Ahearn (Roost Books, 2017) The Lost Kitchen: Recipes and a Good Life Found in Freedom, Maine by Erin French (Clarkson Potter, 2017) Two new cookbooks from Midcoast chefs—Full Moon Suppers at Salt Water Farm in Lincolnville by Annemarie Ahearn and The… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

To know, but not possess an island

Where Edges Don’t Hold: A Small Island Miscellany By Christina Marsden Gillis; CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 2017 In her introduction to this collection, Christina Gillis notes that in organizing Where Edges Don’t Hold: A Small Island Miscellany, she had in mind readers who identify “with the emerging field of Island… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

More rumination on ‘imperfect love’

Elizabeth Strout has followed her last novel, My Name is Lucy Barton, with a new book that continues the story. Anything is Possible isn’t only about Lucy and her family, but includes characters we were introduced to previously, and hometown Amgash, Illinois, with its fields of corn and soybeans. We… SEE MORE