Down East Books imprint: 419 books

This inspirational tale of friendship and determination also sheds new light on the role of the mentor's mentor. Discover why this friendship was so crucial to Roosevelt's development as a man and a president-and why it still matters today.

“To begin with I was in love and I am in love so that’s not hard,” Barbara Bush told her granddaughter Ellie LeBlond Sosa on her porch in Kennebunkport, Maine. Sosa had asked for the secret to her and President George H.W. Bush's77-year love affair that withstood World War II separation, a leap...

On an "I will if you will" dare, John Haley enlisted in the 17th Maine Regiment in August 1862 "for three years, unless sooner discharged." ("Discharged, shot, or starved" would have been more accurate, Haley later wryly observed.) Though a reluctant soldier at first, he served steadfastly in the...

Maine's premier tourist destination, Bar Harbor has many historic buildings. The area was once a shipbuilding and farming hamlet that became a Gilded Age resort of the highest order-until a fire in 1947 destroyed many of its buildings. This pictorial history takes Bar Harbor from its origins to the...

What could be better than watching the natural world out your window or on your television? Going out and experiencing it firsthand. In these fifty essays, acclaimed nature and science writer Sy Montgomery takes her readers on a season-by-season tour of the wilderness that is often as close as the...

David Morine’s long love affair with Maine began when he was a boy in 1946 and his parents rented their first lakeside cabin in Fryeburg. At first skeptical about the cost and the lack of plumbing or electricity, the Morines quickly felt right at home. There was plenty of good fishing and good company...

This book is a magnificently illustrated volume that will help anglers, scientists, and nature lovers to identify and appreciate North American freshwater game fish. Along with illustrations that showcase gender color variations for each species, Thompson provides information about fish biology, behavior,...

The popularity of rifles designed to take big game has never been greater. Terry Wieland, a widely recognized firearms expert, explores in detail the rifles and calibers that are drawing attention. This second edition covers what has changed in the field since the first edition was published-new calibers,...

Those who think sharks are a predominantly tropical species will be in for quite a surprise when they learn that the cold waters of New England are home to 33 different species. The aim of this book is to provide both accurate scientific information on sharks and to profile those species that inhabit the waters of New England.

When award-winning outdoor and nature writer Charles Fergus decided to leave his longtime home in Pennsylvania, he wrote a memoir of his last season hunting upland birds—grouse, woodcock, and pheasant— in his favorite coverts, some of which he had visited every autumn for almost thirty years....

As author Himmelman can attest, people of all ages are actively learning more about frogs, toads, and salamanders. This book covers everything from amphibians' physiology to their place in folklore and literature to possible explanations of why many populations have declined. Along the way we learn...

The second of a three-volume series, this book is aimed at parents whose children have read The Gun Book for Boys and want to get started shooting. It is a straightforward treatment of the “adult” concerns about firearms and shooting, from safety and legal issues to costs, potential pitfalls and...

Like many new general practitioners in the 1950s, Dr. Anthoy Betts faced few real opportunities under the new British National Health Care system. So, with little more than a suitcase, he and his wife and two babies set off for the U.S.A. Moving to rural Maine in the middle of January, they...

This fast-paced and fascinating story, originally published in 1983, covers a vital part of coastal Maine's history too long overlooked: the cultural history of the Penobscot, Kennebec, Saco, and Damariscotta Rivers. More than three hundred years are covered, from the days of pioneer settlers, sea...