The Art of Maine in Winter presents more than eighty works by the finest American painters who capture the beauty of winter in Maine. Winslow Homer and Rockwell Kent, for example, stayed well into the winter, creating some of the most memorable images of Maine ever made. Snow on a meadow, ice blocks in a bay, frozen winter streams, sea smoke hovering over the ocean, and houses becoming gingerbread fantasies after a snowstorm -- these are the glories of winter in Maine that have inspired artists for almost two hundred years.
Poetry. "Hypocrite reader, mon somblobble, Jonah Winter will New York School you in the woodshed of his imagination! These poems remind me of Robert Bresson's FOUR NIGHTS OF A DREAMER, in which a tape recorder spews out the blurts and ravings of the heart at inappropriate moments. MAINE is a hemorrhage of the goofy, the sinister, and the sublime"--James Cummins. Jonah Winter is a children's book author and illustrator whose books include Diego, Fair Ball! 14 Great Stars from Baseball's Negro Leagues, Once Upon a Time in Chicago, Beisbol and Frida. His poetry has appeared in journals including Field, Chicago Review and Ploughshares, from which he won the Cohen Award; he has also received a Pushcart Prize. This is his first book of poems.
"The naturalist, says Emerson, must satisfy all the demands of the spirit. Dana Wilde does that by uniquely unifying acute perception with that transcendental metaphysic that Emerson unabashedly called Love. Wilde is the poet of facts, his science always in the service of reverence and his universal intimations of spirit never "the easy gold of fay or elf," as Robert Frost praised a practice of the natural supernatural. Wilde is not an excursionist, but a seer who observes the comprehensive, year round fluidity of nature surrounding him and the eternal cosmos above him from his backyard in Troy, Maine. He is the best of the real thing, letting the obdurate bleakness and the rampant beauty of Maine inform each other in wit that is invariably wise and intimate. Every essay in this book can teach us like parables of understanding and reason how to unite devotion and thought to be whole people in our waking lives." --William Hathaway, author of Dawn Chorus and The Right No From first signs or unseen sense of Fall's closing in, to the certain loosening thaws and drips prefacing ice out, from First Peoples' tellings and showings to the habits of next inhabitants here, now, and in whatever untamed future survives the changing climate, this book is a fire for the darks and lights of winter in Maine. And a source, as any fire is, of realization, solace, and meditation burning perfectly, steadfastly, through Winter's grief and any joy to be found. Season by season, discovery by revelation, no one in Maine works harder, truer, nor more beautifully and imaginatively than Dana Wilde. --Patricia Ranzoni, author of Settling and Bedding Vows
"The Winter Coast of Maine" is the first fine art book dedicated to color photographs of Maine's coastal landscape made exclusively during the coldest months - a time of year that most visitors and summer residents rarely get to see. The Maine coast is a place of exquisite beauty at all times of year, but especially in winter. The topography of this region ranges from long sandy beaches in the south to tall granite headlands in the area known as "Down East." Photographer and Maine resident Ed Kenney has spent the last decade compiling a portfolio of stunning images capturing the essence of a coast that is at times serene and still, and at other times ferocious, stormy, and bitterly cold. A photographer for over a half century, Ed Kenney can barely recall a time when a camera was not close at hand. His skills were honed using a succession of film cameras that began with a Kodak Hawkeye and progressed over the years to an Arca Swiss 4x5. Although the view camera still sees occasional use, these days almost all capture is digital on high resolution sensors matched with the finest lenses. Thirty-three year National Geographic veteran Sam Abell has written the foreword to this volume in which he asks: "Was summer fiction? No, but without summer's growth the winter declares a hard granitic truth: All else is temporary." The luminous photographs gathered here forcefully make the case that while some things pass, many things seem eternal on "The Winter Coast of Maine."
Inspired by his From the Ground Up New York Times blog, a beautifully written memoir about building and brotherhood. Confronted with the disappointments and knockdowns that can come in middle age-job loss, the death of his mother, a health scare, a divorce-Lou Ureneck needed a project that would engage the better part of him and put him back in life's good graces. City-bound for a decade, Lou decided he needed to build a simple post-and-beam cabin in the woods. He bought five acres in the hills of western Maine and asked his younger brother, Paul, to help him. Twenty years earlier the brothers had built a house together. Now Lou saw working with Paul as a way to reconnect with their shared history and to rediscover his truest self. As the brothers-with the help of Paul's sons-undertake the challenging construction, nothing seems to go according to plan. But as they raise the cabin, Ureneck eloquently reveals his own evolving insights into the richness and complexity of family relationships, the healing power of nature, and the need to root oneself in a place one can call home. With its exploration of the satisfaction of building and of physical labor, Cabin will also appeal to readers of Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Matthew Crawford's Shop Class as Soulcraft, and Tracy Kidder's House.
One man’s “curiously thrilling joyride” of travelogue, history, and climatology, across a planet on the brink of cataclysmic transformation (Donovan Hohn). As the planet warms, winter is shrinking. In the last fifty years, the Northern Hemisphere lost a million square miles of spring snowpack and in the US alone, snow cover has been reduced by 15-30%. On average, winter has shrunk by a month in most northern latitudes. In this deeply researched, beautifully written, and adventure-filled book, journalist Porter Fox travels along the edge of the Northern Hemisphere's snow line to track the scope of this drastic change, and how it will literally change everything—from rapid sea level rise, to fresh water scarcity for two billion people, to massive greenhouse gas emissions from thawing permafrost, and a half dozen climate tipping points that could very well spell the end of our world. This original research is animated by four harrowing and illuminating journeys—each grounded by interviews with idiosyncratic, charismatic experts in their respective fields and Fox's own narrative of growing up on a remote island in Northern Maine. Timely, atmospheric, and expertly investigated, The Last Winter will showcase a shocking and unexpected casualty of climate change—that may well set off its own unstoppable warming cycle.
From flying squirrels to grizzly bears, and from torpid turtles to insects with antifreeze, the animal kingdom relies on some staggering evolutionary innovations to survive winter. Unlike their human counterparts, who must alter the environment to accommodate physical limitations, animals are adaptable to an amazing range of conditions. Examining everything from food sources in the extremely barren winter land-scape to the chemical composition that allows certain creatures to survive, Heinrich's Winter World awakens the largely undiscovered mysteries by which nature sustains herself through winter's harsh, cruel exigencies.
An evocative, gorgeous four-season look at cooking in Maine, with 100 recipes No one can bring small-town America to life better than a native. Erin French grew up in Freedom, Maine (population 719), helping her father at the griddle in his diner. An entirely self-taught cook who used cookbooks to form her culinary education, she now helms her restaurant, The Lost Kitchen, in a historic mill in the same town, creating meals that draw locals and visitors from around the world to a dining room that feels like an extension of her home kitchen. The food has been called “brilliant in its simplicity and honesty” by Food & Wine, and it is exactly this pure approach that makes Erin’s cooking so appealing—and so easy to embrace at home. This stunning giftable package features a vellum jacket over a printed cover.
Since it’s grand opening in June 2007, the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay has become one of Maine’s most popular attractions and one the most distinguished botanical destinations in the country. “Wow!” is the word most often heard from visitors who explore the exquisite gardens, stunning stonework, exceptional natural landscapes, waterfalls, and sculptures. The goal of the Gardens is to preserve the botanical heritage and natural landscapes of coastal Maine. Comprising nearly 250 acres, with numerous themed gardens—including the Lerner Garden of the Five Senses, The Giles Rhododendron and Perennial Garden, and the Burpee Kitchen Garden—miles of trails, and a rich variety of events year-round, the Gardens has something for everyone. Celebrating the Fifth Anniversary of the Maine Botanical Gardens, and honoring the sixteen years of planning and construction that went into them, this book is an inspiring tribute to thisparadise on the Maine coast. Bursting with vivid color photographs, information about the Gardens, and a pinch of practical advice for gardeners, it makes a wonderful keepsake or a great gift to inspire others to visit the Gardens.
