In the years leading up to the American Revolution, tensions were high, but not everyone felt the same effects of British oppression. Connecticut newspapers took up the mantle to not just report the injustices, but actively convince and insight their readers to stand up and rebel. Charles Cutter lays bare the influence of the press to start the war that gave birth to our nation as we know it. As one phase of the Bicentennial observation, The American...

Jennie Cyr disappeared in 1977. Jerilyn Towers vanished in 1982. Lynn Willette never came home on a night in 1994. Each woman had a relationship with James Hicks, who in 2000 confessed to murdering them, dismembering their bodies and burying the remains alongside rural roads in Aroostook County. This is their story. Trudy Irene Scee follows Hicks from the North Woods to west Texas, detailing three decades of evasion, investigation and prosecution....

The wild and scenic Allagash River flows northward a hundred miles through uplands of unbroken forest. A skilled writer links us to this remote and beautiful area.

Discover 400 years of New England history you won't find in guidebooks in this collection of true stories and colorful characters from The Pine Tree State. Maine wouldn't be the magical place it is today without the contributions of little-known individuals whose inspiring and adventuresome lives make up the story of Maine's "hidden history." Journalist and Maine historian Harry Gratwick presents vividly detailed portraits of these Mainers, from the...

On March 22, 1990, local fishermen Hokey Hokanson and his teenage son, Billy, set sail for Cape Cod in the "Sol e Mar." When disaster struck three days later, Billy transmitted a brief, heavily garbled radio distress call. A hoax call immediately followed Billy's cry for help, and believing that the two were connected, the U.S. Coast Guard did not launch rescue units for several days. The Hokansons' deaths prompted a new anti-hoax law and changed...

You've devoured their pages of verse and prose--now witness firsthand the inspiration for those perfectly penned lines of Longfellow, Frost and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Discover the strong feminist voice of Judith Sargent Murray as you stroll down Middle Street in Gloucester, or navigate the narrow, winding streets of Marblehead and flip through the eighteenth-century journals of the sailor Ashley Bowen. Plan a literary-themed cultural outing or simply...

Whether dotting the coastline, guarding the banks of the Kennebec or defending the Canadian border, Maine's many forts have sheltered its towns and people since the seventeenth century. Both Fort Kent and Fort Fairfield were built after the War of 1812 during the Aroostook War, when hostilities raged between Mainers and British Canadians over the region's rich timber stands. Portland Harbor's Fort Preble became embroiled in the Civil War when a Confederate...

Plymouth is best known as the Pilgrim landing place, but history did not stop when the dishes were cleared away from the first Thanksgiving. A prosperous fishing village before the War of 1812, Plymouth developed mills and factories to line its modest brooks during the Industrial Revolution, and elegant dwellings were built to replace humble Colonial homes. Steamboats and the railway brought waves of immigrants and summer visitors, transforming the...

Litchfield was founded 57 years before the Declaration of Independence, and it wears its distinctive history proudly. Visitors first note the town's scenic beauty, then its pace, friendly atmosphere, and historic architecture. Litchfield was the home of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin; Ethan Allen, a hero of the Revolutionary War; Sarah Pierce, whose Litchfield Female Academy pioneered education for women; Tapping Reeve, founder...

The Kennebunks--the phrase evokes peace, ocean breezes and small-town pride. In this captivating collection of vignettes, Kennebunk town historian Kathleen Ostrander reveals another side of the area's allure: its rich and varied past. From an account of the amateur astronomer whose name now graces the Bates College Observatory to the origins of Kennebunk's encyclopedic Walker Diaries, Ostrander offers a tour of the area's historical highlights. She...