Katahdin has been called Maine’s greatest treasure. In addition to the outdoor and sporting tradition that surrounds it, there is a distinct tradition of art. For more than a hundred years, some of the most prominent landscape painters—Marsden Hartley, Frederic Church, John Marin, and many others—have portrayed Katahdin. Art of Katahdin is the first book to catalog this tradition. Filled with hundreds of color artworks this books traces the artists who have worked at Katahdin, from the earliest renderings and maps of the area to contemporary views. The text follows some of the history of the region, as well as the artists’ ties to the mountain.

Marsden Hartley had a lifelong personal and aesthetic engagement with Maine, where he was born in 1877 and where he died at age sixty-six. As an important member of the artistic circle promoted by Alfred Stieglitz, Hartley began his career by painting the mountains of western Maine. He subsequently led a peripatetic life, traveling throughout Europe and North America and only occasionally visiting his native state. By midlife, however, his itinerant existence had taken an emotional toll, and he confided to Stieglitz that he wanted “so earnestly a ‘place’ to be.” Finally returning to the state in his later years, he transformed his identity from urbane sophisticate to “the painter from Maine.” But while Maine has played a clear and defining role in Hartley’s art, not until now has this relationship been studied with the breadth and richness it warrants. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Verdana} Marsden Hartley’s Maine is the first in-depth discussion of Hartley’s complex and shifting relationship to his native state. Illustrated with works from throughout the painter’s career, it provides a nuanced understanding of Hartley’s artistic range, from the exhilarating Post-Impressionist landscapes of his early years to the late, roughly rendered paintings of Maine and its people. The absorbing essays examine Hartley’s view of Maine as a place of light and darkness whose spirit imbued his art, which encompassed buoyant coastal views, mournful mountain vistas, and portraits of Mainers. An illustrated chronology provides an overview of Hartley’s life, juxtaposing major personal incidents with concurrent events in Maine’s history. For Hartley, who was strongly influenced by such artists as Paul Cézanne, Winslow Homer, and Albert Pinkham Ryder, Maine was an enduring source of inspiration, one powerfully intertwined with his past, his cultural milieu, and his desire to create a regional expression of American modernism.

Maine provided sensational sunsets, robust waves crashing on rocky shores, and an abundance of wilderness well suited to Frederic Church's artistic vision. Maine Sublime brings together all of the Maine artwork in the Olana collection.

The city of Portland and its surroundings, including the islands of Casco Bay, have inspired a wide range of art over the past 200 years. The “city by the sea,” as Longfellow famously called it, has been a visual talisman for a host of artists, from early masters like Harrison Bird Brown and John Bradley Hudson to a remarkable roster of contemporary painters. Subjects include many of the city’s signature buildings, including the Custom House and Portland Head Light, as well as street scenes, the waterfront, harbor, back bay, and surrounding landscapes—even the Million Dollar Bridge. Paintings of Portland will feature a wide range of motifs, in all seasons and represented by an array of styles. About a quarter of the book will be devoted to historical pieces, the rest to paintings by contemporary artists.

In 1948, young WWII veteran Earl Shaffer did what many people said couldn't be done: He trekked the entire length of the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine in one continuous journey ... walking into the history books as the Trail's first thru-hiker. In 1998, on the 50th anniversary of that hike, 79-year-old Earl did it again. In this beautifully-presented book, Earl recalls his 1998 anniversary trip and pays homage to the Appalachian Trail through his prose and poetry, enhanced by dozens of Bart Smith's stunning photographs.

With a light boat, a tent, two blankets apiece, a rifle, pistol, fishing apparatus, fifty pounds of flour, twenty pounds of salt pork, and "a sufficient quantity" of sugar, tea, cornmeal, molasses, salt, pepper, beans, and cheese, our four young men traveled to Moosehead Lake, and then began to row and paddle and sail and portage their way towards Katahdin, through rapids, and over the "carrys," before they headed home--down the West Branch when it was still a wild river.

Based on the true account of a boy's harrowing journey through the vast wilderness of the Katahdin Mountains, Lost on a Mountain in Maine is a gripping survival story for all ages. Twelve-year-old Donn Fendler steps away from his Boy Scout troop for only a minute, but in the foggy mountains of Maine, a minute is all it takes. After hours of trying to find his way back, a nervous and tired Donn falls down an embankment, making it impossible for him to be found. One sleepless night goes by, followed by a second . . . and before Donn knows it, almost two weeks have passed, leaving him starving, scared, and delirious. With rainstorms, black bears, and his fear of being lost forever, Donn's journey is a physically, mentally, and emotionally charged story told from the point of view of the boy who lived it. Don't miss this thrilling survival story, a proven high-interest winner that pulls in readers the way Hatchet, My Side of the Mountain, and the I Survived books do.