The edge of Maine2005

"Even after years of summering in Maine, Geoffrey Wolff is still "from away, " as he wryly acknowledges in this affectionate appreciation of the rock-bound, often fog-shrouded stretch of shoreline that runs from Portland to the Schoodic Peninsula. In the reckoning of a genuine Down Easter, it can take a generation or more to become a true Mainiac; less a state and more of a state of mind, it's a place as famous for its laconic Yankee wit as for its lobster, at once wary, wily, and welcoming in its attitude toward outsiders." "Anyone who already knows coastal Maine will nod in amused recognition at Wolff's engrossing sketch of this beautiful part of New England; those who have yet to discover it will find his book a wonderful introduction. Interweaving history and anecdote with his own experience, he captures the salty flavor of seaside towns where blue-collar fishermen rub shoulders with yachtsmen - and occasionally collide with them, not always by accident. He evokes the rugged insularity of tiny Atlantic islands like Matinicus and the seasonal chic of resorts like Mount Desert, where well-heeled "rusticators" spend their summers in twenty-bedroom "cottages."" "A sailor himself, Wolff celebrates the harbors, reaches, and coves of a cruising ground that's among the world's finest, and summons the maritime spirit of a region whose yards once dominated American shipbuilding, a tradition still observed both by craftsmen who preserve the art of wooden boatbuilding and by the crews of the Bath Iron Works, which outfits some of our Navy's most advanced ships. He also introduces such Mainers as the canny 19th-century entrepreneur whose business cutting ice from the frozen Kennebec River became a lucrative global industry."--BOOK JACKET.