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White Pine and Blue Water: A State of Maine Reader
Henry Beston (ed.)
Henry Beston's 1950 gathering of Maine writing — three centuries of it — assembled by one of America's finest nature writers into a portrait of a state through its literature. Beston ranges across history, memoir, folklore, natural history, and fiction to catch Maine from many angles: the coast and the deep woods, the working life and the weather, the plain and the visionary. As an anthology it reflects its editor's own sensibility — a feeling for landscape, weather, and the dignity of rural life that runs through all his work. For anyone who loves Maine, or the American regional anthology as a form, it is a warm and well-chosen doorway into the state's written self.
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The editor
Henry Beston (1888–1968) is best known for The Outermost House, his classic year on the dunes of Cape Cod and a touchstone of American nature writing. He later settled at Chimney Farm in Nobleboro, Maine, with his wife, the writer Elizabeth Coatsworth, and much of his later work — this anthology included — grew from that rooted Maine life. He edits as a kindred spirit to his contributors rather than a neutral compiler.
The book
Published in 1950 by Farrar, Straus and Company, collecting Maine writing across roughly three centuries — history, essay, fiction, and folklore. It was later reissued for new generations of Maine readers.
How it has aged
As a period anthology it inevitably reflects the canon and tastes of mid-century; some selections have dated, others endure. But as a curated introduction to Maine's literature — and as a window onto what one distinguished writer of place thought worth preserving in 1950 — it keeps real charm and use.
For more context
Beston's own The Outermost House and Northern Farm (his Maine book); and the Maine writing of his wife, Elizabeth Coatsworth.
Sources
- Type
- Book
- Author / Maker
- Henry Beston (ed.)
- Publisher
- Farrar, Straus and Company
- Place of publication
- New York
- Year
- 1950
- ISBN
- None
- Format
- Paperback
- Shelf
- Essays
- Location
- Maine
Places