Down East Books: 419 books

"We left our Maine and our United States at home and we journeyed amongst other peoples with courtesy to them and credit to ourselves." That is John Gould's definition of good travelers; and he and his wife are charming examples of this as they tour through Germany, Denmark, Austria,...

"Not everyone gets a chance to write a second cookbook," writes Marjorie Standish. "That's the reason I feel so grateful that this book came about." After the phenomenal success of her first book, Cooking Down East, it was inevitable that her readers clamored for a second collection...

Jane Lamb has been a major contributor of gardening articles to Down East magazine for nearly 20 years. Now 27 of her articles profiling Maine's premier gardeners and most outstanding gardens are collected in one volume. Jane has provided a new introductory paragraph for each chapter to bring readers...

Since 1992, Jeff Pert's sardonic cartoons, particularly those featuring lobster and moose, have appeared in magazines (including Down East) and on merchandise sold throughout New England. Collecting more than 100 of his best, most popular comics, How's the Water, Bob? presents a hilarious alternative look at Maine.

Brandon Blake, the tough and resourceful kid from the Portland waterfront, has made it. He's been hired by the Portland Police Department, partly as payback for stopping a vicious cop killer in PORT CITY SHAKEDOWN. But the newest rookie on the night shift isn't pulling any punches. And when a drug-addled...

Over the course of his long and storied career, George Mitchell proved to be much more than just that senator from Maine. He is one of the last from a sort of "golden age" of American politics, when opposing parties worked together to accomplish things for the good of the nation, rather...

A young boy nearly paralyzed in a car accident runs for the first time in his life during a baseball game. A refugee family from despoiled East Africa plays soccer in my suburban backyard on Thanksgiving Day. A group of college boys is challenged to a game of basketball against the women’s varsity...

Every year visitors flock to Maine’s Fort Knox near the mouth of the Penobscot River. They are drawn by the thousands for its glimpse into Maine’s military past, but also for it's haunted aspects. The fort was catapulted to national attention when the prime-time TV show Ghost Hunters filmed an...

Abandoned by his father, orphaned by his drug-addled mother, and devastated by the murder of his sister, Michael McKeon was once a hardened “street dog who learned to play in traffic.” Years later, Michael is now a Bowdoin College professor with a wife and adopted daughter. When he creates a microbe...

One hundred years ago, Henry Thoreau wrote of the charms and joys of simple living in the woods, away from the hectic nuisances of our city civilization. His philosophy has become part of our American heritage, as sound today as the day he first set it down. But his advice on the simple life has seemed...

From inland peaks and forests to the bold and rocky shore, Maine provides habitat for more than 400 species of birds--roughly half of the species that can be found in all of North America. That wealth of birdlife, coupled with spectacular scenery, has ranked the state high on many birders' lists,...

The two bouts between Cassius Clay and Sonny Liston are widely considered the most anticipated and controversial fights in heavyweight boxing. Cassius Clay won the first bout in Miami Beach in February 1964, when Liston refused to come out for the seventh round. The second fight took place in Lewiston,...

As the battle-fit men of Bennett’s Island are called to fight in World War II, many of the other inhabitants head to the mainland as well. The small island community becomes a bit of a ghost town, though Joanna Bennett keeps the home fires burning. Rather than dwelling on her husband’s fate in...

Mr. Pottle, who oversees the town dump, cannot bear to destroy books, so he recycles them for the community to enjoy. When Mr. Pottle falls and the community's children deliver books to him to speed his recovery, they discover the book-loving dump man cannot read. A town full of willing tutors then...