Working Waterfront

A catastrophe in which no beauty can be found

By Dana Wilde Long ago, before realizing I was unfit to write poetry, I set myself a project I thought might become my life’s work. My childhood was still fresh and glistening with pain, and one of the more frightening disturbances had been the Cuban Missile Crisis, when I was… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

‘We ain’t quaint’

The Peninsula, by Louise Dickinson Rich (1958, Lippincott) By Tom Walsh Great books often serve as literary time machines, taking readers back to the way things were. Anyone interested in the ongoing 300-year evolution of modern history and culture of Downeast Maine should make an effort to find what is a… SEE MORE

Bailey Island and Orr's Island in Harpswell are known for their scenic vistas.

Working Waterfront

Mythic summers on Bailey Island

… So that’s how it is out there in Maine. Be careful out there – Patricia Ranzoni, “Cultural Guide” The southwest tip of Bailey Island is called Land’s End, for good reason. Just off the gift shop parking lot, the other side of Jaquish Island, is the open ocean.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Letters to the editor: Nantucket thoughts

Nantucket native remains islander To the editor: What a delightful surprise to open November’s issue of The Working Waterfront to see a story and pictures of my native Nantucket Island. It was a fine article and so vividly portrays what has happened to it in the past half century. Unfortunately,… SEE MORE

Fishermen work on the waterfront on Islesford as November settles in.

Working Waterfront

Considering the elements that sustain community vitality

One of the best metaphors depicting the fragility of island communities I’ve encountered is the idea of the three-legged stool. I attend the quarterly meetings of the Maine Islands Coalition, a group the Institute helped create, which convenes representatives of the 15 unbridged, year-round islands. Occasionally, members refer to the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Nantucket as symbol of undesirable island fate

By Tom Groening A year ago, my wife and I returned to Nantucket to celebrate our 35th anniversary. It was our first time back since I began working at the Island Institute, and so it was with different eyes that I took in the beauty, the history, the wealth, and… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Islands of the South Atlantic tell stories of people, nature

By Dwight Gertz Strung between Antarctica and the Equator, a thin chain of islands in the South Atlantic Ocean lies almost abandoned by commerce. Once valued for whaling or as stopping points on the way to the capes at the tip of Africa and South America, these islands exist mostly… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

George Mitchell: Much more than compromise

By Douglas Rooks When I began researching Statesman, my biography of Sen. George Mitchell, I thought I knew the man, at least in his public life. After all, we first met in the Kennebec Journal newsroom in Augusta some 30 years ago, and I followed him from there throughout his… SEE MORE

In front of the Libby building on Congress Square in the 1970s.

Working Waterfront

Portland in the ’80s: ‘Yuppie go home’

Early in 1977, another new restaurant opened in the Old Port. This one on Middle Street had a tongue-in-cheek sign: “Carbur’s: Since 1977.” A tradition going all the way back to this year! Hilarious! The Cumberland County Civic Center opened then, too, a shrewd public-finance deal. In 1979, the Portland… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Island fire rekindles fears, appreciation

By Phil Showell More than 50 years ago I was sitting on a porch at my parent’s place on Sheep Island. It lies in the New Meadows River, opposite the Basin, a sensually stunning refuge from stormy weather known to most who cruise Maine’s coast. I was riveted by what… SEE MORE