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Recent Books about the Northern Forest region
© 2002 by Jym St. Pierre An abundance of written materials about the Northern Forest region has been published in the past few years. Here is a sampling, heavy toward my home state of Maine. Excluded are lots of interesting articles and bureaucratic reports. With a few exceptions, listings of travel books, tourist literature, field guides, and maps also are not included. For an extensive bibliography of that sort of info for the Maine Woods, contact me at 9 Union Street, Hallowell, ME 04347, jym@restore.org. Prices are typically for a softcover edition, unless there is none. If I had to single out three important books in this list, I would urge you to read Klyza and McGrory's Wilderness Comes Home, Rolde's The Interrupted Forest, and Bennett's The Wilderness from Chamberlain Farm. Though they each have their limitations, this trio more than justified transforming some perfectly good trees into the printed word. --Jym St. Pierre, Hallowell, Maine, January 2002 Albers, Jan. Hands on the Land: A History of the Vermont Landscape. 2000. The MIT Press. $40. Using Vermont as a study, she explains how the landscapes of today are the result of decisions of yesterday. Arlen, Alice. She Took to the Woods: A Biography and Selected Writings of Louise Dickinson Rich. 2000. Down East Books. $16.95. An admiring peek behind the curtain Rich fashioned of her experiences living the so-called simple life in the woods of western Maine. Arlen, Alice. In the Maine Woods, Insiders' Guide to Traditional Maine Sporting Camps. 1998 (2d edition). The Countryman Press. $17. A snapshot of a century-old backwoods institution as well as a recipe book. Askins, Robert A. Restoring North America's Birds: Lessons from Landscape Ecology. 2000. Yale University Press. $35. A plea for landscape-scale conservation in the Northern Forest and beyond. Belanger, Pamela J. Maine in America: American Art at The Farnsworth Art Museum. 2000. The Farnsworth Art Museum. $55. Includes only a few inland paintings, but don't miss the atmospheric 1871 landscape of "Mount Kineo" by John J. Enneking on page 67. Bennett, Dean B. The Wilderness from Chamberlain Farm: A Story of Hope for the American Wild. 2001. Island Press. $30. Both a detailed history of the struggle to endlessly save the Allagash and a hopeful apologia for wilderness further afield. Bernier. R.G. On the Track. 2001. Big Whitetail Consultants. $19.95. An effort to tease profound wisdom out of prosaic deer stalking. Bernier. R.G. The Deer Trackers. 2000. Big Whitetail Consultants. $19.95. More of the same. Birkett, Terri. Truax. 1995. Hardwood Forest Foundation. $9.99. With funding from forest industry trade associations, hundreds of thousands of copies of this cleverly inverted version of Dr. Seuss's Lorax have been donated to elementary schools nationwide. Botkin, Daniel B. No Man's Garden: Thoreau and a New Vision for Civilization and Nature. 2001. Island Press. $24.95. Does not live up to the subtitle and contains some serious mischaracterizations of my work, but offers some tasty nuggets if taken with enough grains of salt. Bourque, Bruce J. Twelve Thousand Years: American Indians in Maine. 2001. University of Nebraska Press. $39.95. The story of Native peoples who for a dozen millennia have called this region home. Conforti, Joseph A. Imagining New England: Explorations of Regional Identity from the Pilgrims to the Mid-Twentieth Century. 2001. $19.95. University of North Carolina Press. Connors-carlson, Shirlee. Landings, Logging and Lumbermen: Memories of St. John, Maine, 1901-2001. 2001. Self-published. $25. A rough collection of writings, sketches and old-time photos from northernmost Maine. Conover, Garrett and Alexandra Conover. The Winter Wilderness Companion: Traditional and Native American Skills for the Undiscovered Season. 2000. Ragged Mountain Press. $19.95. A couple of woodswise Maine guides tell how to enjoy the cold season the old way. Cook, David S. Above the Gravel Bar: The Indian Canoe Routes of Maine. 2000. Douglas Charles Ltd. A reprint, with a prettier cover, of his 1985 paperback. Even with the many new texts on Native Americans, this remains an important sourcebook. Dietz, Lew. The Allagash. 2000. Down East Books. $15.95. Thirty-five years after it was "saved" the Allagash is more at risk than ever. First published in 1968, this book reminds us of the natural and human history the Allagash Wilderness Waterway was created to honor. Dow, Grace Butterfield. A Week at the Lake. 2001. Down East Books. $15.95. A small treasure about a Depression-era adventure at Wytopitlock Lake in the wilds of Maine. Charming woodcuts by Siri Beckman. Dunn, John W.G. Diary. 2001. Maine Historical Society. A wonderful first person account of sporting adventures at Moosehead in the late nineteenth century along with a fantastic collection of photos. On the Web at www.mainehistory.org. Elder, John (ed). The Return of the Wolf: Reflections on the Future of Wolves in the Northeast. 2000. Middlebury College Press. $24.95. Four thought-provoking essays about wolf recovery, but really about whether our species has grown up yet. Forbes, Peter. The Great Remembering: Further Thoughts on Land, Soul, and Society. 2001. Chelsea Green. $14.95. Wisdom from the former head of the New England branch of the Trust for Public Land. Easier read than followed, but well worth being reminded. Foster, David R. Thoreau's Country: Journey Through a Transformed Landscape. 1999. Harvard University Press. $27.95. Lessons for conservation in our time teased out of Thoreau's observations on ecological succession a century and a half ago. A more thoughtful meditation than Botkin's. Foster, David R. and John F. O'Keefe. New England Forests through Time. 2000. Harvard University Press. Photos and insights from the extraordinary dioramas at the Harvard Forest of succession in the woodlands of southern New England. Gorman, Stephen. "Paddling through Time, Allagash River Headwaters, Maine," in The American Wilderness: Journeys into Distant and Historic Landscapes. 1999. Universe Publishing. $45. A coffee table tome for arm chair dreaming. Gove, Bill. Railroads of the Saco River Valley. 2001. Bond Cliff Books. $24.95. A winter's worth of stories and pictures about how the iron horse opened up the virgin forests of northern New Hampshire for logging. Gove, Bill. J.E. Henry's Logging Railroads. 1998. Bond Cliff Books. $25.95. A history of the biggest logging operator in the White Mountains back when men were men and forests were merely trees going to waste. Grant, Richard. Tex and Molly in the Afterlife. 1996. Avon. $24. This novel about tree-huggers, wolves, and forestry companies--some dead, some alive--is such a hoot I keep giving copies to friends. I think I know the real people who inspired most of the characters. Hafford, Faye O'Leary. The Fall of the Forest. 2001. Self-published [. $10. Paean to the woodsworkers of Maine's North Woods. Hafford, Faye O'Leary. Only God Has the Right to Make Heroes. 1999. Self-published. $10. How the Moosetowners fought for survival during a flood in 1991 that nearly wiped Allagash village off the map. Hardy, Fannie Pearson. Tales of the Maine Woods: Two Forest and Stream Essays (1891). 1999. Maine Folklife Center. $15. Collected articles by historian Fannie Hardy Eckstorm. One is a series about camping in eastern Maine, the other is a polemic against early hunting laws promoted by outta staters to curb the wasteful ways of locals. Hennessey, Tom. Handy to Home: A Lifetime in the Maine Outdoors. 2000. Silver Quill. $24.95. Tom draws better pictures than conclusions, but there is no denying his devotion to Maine's outdoors. Hilyard, Gordon R. and Leslie K. Hilyard. Carrie G. Stevens: Maker of Rangeley Favorite Trout and Salmon Flies. 2000. Stackpole Books. $39.95. The story of one of Maine's legendary fly-tiers. Hubbell, William. Seasons of Maine. 2001. Down East Books. $24.95. A photodocumentary of the state including a few inland images. My favorite is of Native American elder Arnie Neptune watching dawn break over the Penobscot River. Huber, J. Parker (ed). Elevating Ourselves: Thoreau on Mountains. 1999. Houghton Mifflin. $6.95. I love the double entendre in the subtitle of this little paperback. Huey [Coleman, James]. Wilderness and Spirit: A Mountain Called Katahdin. 2002 [in prep]. Films by Huey. This feature length movie will be a portrait of the natural and human history of Maine's "Greatest Mountain." Hunter, Julia A. and Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr. Fly Rod Crosby: The Woman Who Marketed Maine. 2000. Tilbury House. $25. Two books in one: a short bio of Maine's most famous ourtdoorswoman plus a terrific portfolio of early Maine Woods photos by Edwin Starbird. Hunter Jr., Malcolm, A. Calhoun and M. McCollough (eds). Maine Amphibians and Reptiles. 1999. University of Maine Press. $19.95. Everything from eye of newt to scale of snake as well as a CD of frog and toad choruses. Irland, Lloyd. "Maine Forests: A Century of Change, 1900-2000...and elements of policy change for a new century," Maine Policy Review. Winter 2000. Useful backward look though I fear that the "pragmatic vision" offered (e.g., "find better ways to sustain wildness") is not an adequate recipe to end the continued fumbling on forest policy. Irland, Lloyd C. The Northeast's Changing Forest. 1999. Harvest University Forest. $50. A comprehensive update of his 1982 book, Wildlands and Woodlots, overstocked with pithy data. Irvine, Amy. Making a Difference. 2001. Falcon. $12.95. A dozen tales about grassroots groups that are leading the charge for protection of spectacular wildlands and important recreation areas around the country. My favorite, of course, is the chapter on RESTORE: The North Woods. Jacoby, Karl. Crimes against Nature: Squatters, Poachers, Thieves, and the Hidden History of American Conservation. University of California Press. 2001. $39.95. Analyzes the criminalization of early hunting, foraging, and logging in the Adirondacks as well as in Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon. Jay-Livermore Falls Working Class History Project. Pain on their Faces: Testimonies on the Paper Mill Strike, Jay, Maine, 1987-88. 1998. Apex Press. $13.95. I lived in Jay during this strike and watched it tear families apart. Read this and weep. Sponsored by the Jay Foundation. Judd, Richard W. Common Lands, Common People: The Origins of Conservation in Northern New England. 2000. Harvard University Press. $19.95. Argues that the larger conservation movement sprang as much from the homegrown motivations of grassroots backwoods folks as from intellectuals seeking efficient resource use. The Kennebec River: A Guide for Paddlers & Friends. 2001. Kennebec Valley Trails. $14.95. A spiral-bound user's guide and testament to the ongoing restoration of a river that once seemed polluted and dammed beyond hope. Kerasote, Ted. Return of the Wild: The Future of Our Natural Lands. 2001. Pew Wilderness Center and Island Press. $15. Not strictly about our region, but it has good summary chapters on wilderness and fascinating maps of wildlands and roads in the U.S. King, Stephen. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. 1999. Scribner. $7.99. Lots of Steve King thrillers have been set in the Maine Woods. Here is a recent one. Klyza, Christopher McGrory (ed). Wilderness Comes Home: Rewilding the Northeast. 2001. Middlebury College Press. $22.95. So far the best single source of readings on wildlands in our corner of the world from a conservation biology perspective. Klyza, Christopher McGrory and Stephen C. Trombulak. The Story of Vermont: A Natural and Cultural History. 1999. Middlebury College Press. $19.95. The title says it all. Landry, Horace P. A Maine Mystery. 1998. Self-published, printed by The Foot-Print, 20523 South Samiami Trail, Estero, FL 33938. $12.95. A murder whodunit set in the Maine Woods. Lansky, Mitch. Low-Impact Forestry: Forest as if the Future Mattered. 2001. Self-published. Mitch Lansky, HC 60, Box 86, Wytopitlock, ME 04497. $15. We need many more forest preserves and much better stewardship on the surrounding harvested forestlands. This is an excellent introduction to the latter. Lester, Terrell S. Maine: The Seasons. 2001. Alfred A. Knopf. $35. A book of romantic fine art photography landscapes, mostly coastal, but includes some heroic images of the Katahdin region. Livingston, Valerie. Beyond Description: Abstraction in the Oil Paintings of James Fitzgerald. 2001. Monhegan Museum. Fitzgerald was one of the top painters of Katahdin. His watercolors of the massif are splendiferous, but this exhibit catalog includes a pair of powerful oils. McGrath, Robert L. Gods in Granite: The Art of the White Mountains of New Hampshire. 2001. Syracuse University Press. $49.95. A survey of three centuries of literal and metaphorical landscapes. Macdougall, Walter M. The Old Somerset Railroad: A Lifeline for Northern Maine. 2000. Down East Books. $19.95. Stories from the era (1860s-1940s) when the wild country around Moosehead was opened up (fortunately) and tamed (unfortunately). Maine Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. Losing Paradise: The Allagash Wilderness Waterway under Attack. 2002 [actually published in 2001] (second edition). Free. Maine PEER, PO Box 365, Millinocket, ME 04462. A cogent indictment of wilderness mismanagement in Maine's only official Rwild" river. Manning, Samuel F. New England Masts and the King's Broad Arrow. 2000. Self-published. $10. Crisp b&w drawings and spare text tell how in the 1600s the world ran on wood and England reserved the biggest pines here for ship masts. Marchand, Peter. Autumn: A Season of Change. 2000. University Press of New England. $17.95. An elegant meditation on a transcendent time of year. Marlow, Connie Baxter. Greatest Mountain: Katahdin's Wilderness. 1999. Tilbury House Publishers. $20. A reissue of her 1972 photo book with several brief, new essays. Miller, Bing and Jeff Dobbs. Katahdin: The Mountain of the People. [video] 2000. Jeff Dobbs Productions. $19.95. Films never match the depth of a book, but they are superior for streaming images and this one has some stunning moving pictures. Miller, Dorcas S. Adventurous Women: The Inspiring Lives of Nine Early Outdoorswomen. 2000. Pruett Publishing Company. $19.95. Includes a chapter on Martha Whitman, a pioneer adventurer in New Hampshire's White Mountains. Muir, Diana. Reflections in Bullough's Pond: Economy and Ecosystem in New England. 2000. University Press of New England. $26. Concludes that Yankee ingenuity has not only kept us prosperous, but has influenced the industrialization of the world. Northern Forest Canoe Trail: Rangeley Lakes Region Map. 2000? This is the first section to be fully mapped of the proposed 750-mile water trail from the New York's Adirondacks to Fort Kent, Maine. Peladeau, Marius B. John Francis Sprague: Chronicler of Maine History. 1998. L.C. Bates Museum, Hinckley, Maine. $10. Sprague was such an important figure in conservation, development, and history in Maine that he deserves a full biography. For now this booklet is a serviceable introduction. Perley, Karen et al. Wolastoquiyk. 2000. New Brunswick Culture and Sport Secretariat. $15. Catalog of an exhibition about indigenous peoples of the St. John River valley. The exhibit will be at the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor, Maine, during the summer of 2002. Pike, Robert E. Spiked Boots. 1999. Countryman Press. $14.95. A reprint of his 1959 classic on loggers and river drivers of northern New England. Pike, Robert E. Tall Trees, Tough Men. 1999. W.W. Norton. $13.95. A reprint of his 1984 collection of further tales of loggers and river drivers. Power, Thomas Michael. The Economic Impact of the Proposed Maine Woods National Park. 2001. RESTORE: The North Woods, Hallowell, ME. Free ($3 for s/h). A thoughtful critique of the working forest in its declining years and analysis of the benefits/costs of creating a new 3.2-million acre national park in northern Maine. Probert, Randall. A Forgotten Legacy: The Matagamon Region. 1998. Self-published. $19.95. Written like a novel, one of the few books about the country around the north end of Baxter State Park. Provencher-Faucher, Doris. Le Quebecoisi: The Virgin Forest. 2000. Artenay Press. $19.95. Historical fiction about life and love in 17th century Canada and northern New England. Roberts, Kenneth. Arundel. 1995. Down East Books $16.95. A reprint of the 1933 classic historical novel about Benedict Arnold's ill-fated expedition through the Maine Woods in 1775 to Quebec. I read it when I was eight and still vividly recall the excitement of the story more than two score years later. Rolde, Neil. The Interrupted Forest: A History of Maine's Wildlands. 2001. Tilbury House. $20. With better footnoting this would have been a more useful work for serious historians, but it will be an important reference for years. Neil is too pessimistic about creating a national park in the Maine Woods. The revolution in ownership he describes happening there make it virtually inevitable. Ryden, Kent C. Landscape with Figures: Nature and Culture in New England. 2001. University of Iowa Press. $19.95. Deep ponderings on how history and nature have interacted to create the place and notion we call New England. See especially chapter 4 on "Thoreau, Cartography, and the Maine Woods." Sargent, William. A Year in the Notch: Exploring the Natural History of the White Mountains. 2001. University Press of New England. The experiences of a naturalist in northern New Hampshire. Sawtell, William R. Old Sebec, Vol. 1. 1999. Self published. $19.95. Local history of an archetypal community on the southern margin of Maine's North Woods. Scee, Trudy Irene. In the Deeds We Trust, Baxter State Park 1970-94. 1999. Tower Publishing. $14.95. A useful update of the Baxter Park story since John Hakola's Legacy of a Lifetime, but I wish she had spent as much time talking to participants as researching in the library. Schneider, Richard J. (ed). Thoreau's Sense of Place. 2000. University of Iowa Press. $19.95. Essays on environmental writing, including one by Bernard W. Quetchenbach on "Sauntering in the Industrial Wilderness" of the Maine Woods. Scott, Kathy. Moose in the Water/Bamboo on the Bench. 2000. Alder Creek Publishing. $18.95. One man's quest to build the perfect bamboo fly rod while immersed in wilderness splendor of the western edge of the Maine Woods. Sewall, George T. To Katahdin: The 1876 Adventures of Four Young Men and a Boat. 2000. Tilbury House and Friends of the Maine State Museum. $20. A charming journal, rescued from the dusty archives, of a wilderness trip a century and a quarter ago to the heart of the Maine Woods. Seymour, Tom. The Foragers Guide to the Northeast. Vol 1, Spring. [video] 1999. One guy's guide to stalking the wild weeds. Seymour, Tom. Maine. 2002 [in prep]. Globe Pequot Press. $15.95. Silliker, Bill, Jr. and Steve Pulos. The Story of Baxter State Park: Nature at Peace [video]. 2000. Down East Books. $19.95. For those too lazy to read. Silliker, Bill, Jr. The Moose Watcher's Handbook. 2001. R.L. Lemke Corp. $14.95. Bill is a one-man moose industry. This is an update of his 1993 Maine Moose Watcher's Guide. Silliker, Bill, Jr. Uses for Mooses and Other Observations. 2000. Down East Books. $12.95. Justifiable silliness. Silliker, Bill, Jr. Moose: Giant of the Northern Forest. 1998. Firefly Books. $19. Had enough moose yet? Silliker, Bill, Jr. Maine's Magnificent Moose [video]. 1997. P.S. Hemingway Productions. $19.95. More moose in motion from Maine's main mooseman. Smith, Wynifred Staples. Pines and Pioneers. 1999 (reprint). Keim Publications. $19.95. How, after the American Revolution, two families settled on the shore of Webb Lake in western Maine and cut and drove "a hidden pocket of gigantic pines" down river to Bath. Staber, David. The Art of Somerset County. 2001. L.C. Bates Museum. In recent years the Bates Museum in Hinckley, Maine, has put together some impressive exhibits on a shoestring. This show was uneven and the catalog, in black and white, lacks pizzazz, but they deserve an A for effort. Steele, Betty D. Chesuncook on My Mind: Recollections of Historic and Remote Chesuncook Village. 2001. Moosehead Communications. $19.95. Personal reminisces from Maine's best preserved 19th century logging settlement in the heart of the deep woods. Tam, Laura. At Home in the Northern Forest: Reflections on a Region's Identity. 2001. Northern Forest Center. $19.95. Explores sense of place through photos and stories of a variety of residents. Temin, Peter. Engines of Enterprise: An Economic History of New England. 2000. Harvard University Press. $24.95. Notable not for how much, but for how little, it mentions the importance of the forest industry in the region. Thompson, Elizabeth H. and Eric R. Sorenson. Wetland, Woodland, Wildland: A Guide to the Natural Communities of Vermont. 2000. University Press of New England. $19.95. Some author ought to write a comparable book for Maine that is as readable. Trombulak, Stephen C. So Great a Vision: The Conservation Writings of George Perkins Marsh. 2001. University Press of New England. $19.95. A handy aggregation of important early ecological writings by a seminal author. Thoreau, Henry David. Walking with Thoreau: A Literary Guide to the Mountains of New England. 2001. Beacon Press. $16. Repackaging Thoreau's writings is a growth industry. This is a handy compilation of Saint Hank's descriptions of ten alpine adventures. Vecsey, Christopher. The Paths of Kateri's Kin. 1997; paperback 2000. University of Notre Dame Press. $18. A history from the 1600s to the present of the intersection between French Catholicism and Native American religion, including of the Passamaquoddies in Maine. Voight, Robert O. Robert O Voight Editorials 1991 to 1999. 2000. Maine Conservation Rights Institute. $15. A decade's worth of hysterical rantings by a private property rights extremist about misguided conservationists and grand conspiracies. Bob is both sincere and sincerely paranoid. Waldron, Nan Turner. North Woods Walkabout. 1998. Butterfly & Wheel Publishing. $12.95. A loving memoir of one woman's quest for quiet insights from many seasons spent in the woods and bogs of northern Maine. Weaver, Rhonda Hanson. On the Edge. 1994. 1st Books Library $10.85. Adventure tale for 9-12 year olds about a pair of young teen girls who find themselves lost in Maine's North Woods. Wessells, Tom. The Granite Landscape: A Natural History of America's Mountain Domes, from Acadia to Yosemite. 2001. $27.95. Countryman Press. A follow-up to his excellent 1997 book, Reading the Forested Landscape: A Natural History of New England. Wilson, Donald A. Logging and Lumbering in Maine. 2001. Arcadia. $19.99. Old photos that illustrate before "harvesting" we had "cutting." How come so many logging operations look worse today than in the old days? Wilson, Donald A. Maine's Hunting Past. 2001. Arcadia. $18.99. An album that shows before new-fangled wildlife management came the good old days of wanton game banging. Wilson, Donald A. Maine's Angling Past. 2000. Arcadia. $18.99. Pictures that prove we used to have plenty of trophy fish. Wiseman, Frederick Matthew. The Voice of the Dawn: An Autohistory of the Abenaki Nation. 2001. University Press of New England. $19.95. Self-told tales of the Western Abenaki in Vermont. Yocom, Margaret (ed). Working the Woods. 1999. Maine Arts Commission. An exhibit catalogue that romanticizes a vanishing way of life.
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