The Emilie Loring Collection

Today’s post is for you who follow this blog and tell me how much you’d love to see Maine yourself. In Blue Hill this year, I visited friends, made little discoveries, and snapped photos that speak of the place, of Emilie’s times and ours.

If you’ve read Emilie Loring’s descriptions of Maine for years, you may already feel at home there.

From directly overhead the late July sun blazed down upon a bold stretch of New England coast. Pines, balsams and cedars which swept back and up from shore to sky-line simmered in the heat, gave out a spicy fragrance. Under a sky pure turquoise a sea all sapphire ruffled whitely where it laved beach or rock.

A Certain Crossroad

Emilie Loring’s descriptions are finite, though, which is why it’s so wonderful to actually get to Maine, go to Blue Hill, and see it for yourself.

Maine

There are magnificent sights in Maine, to be sure, but the whole is made up of a lot of little sights that are often a combination of motion and stillness: rest below changing clouds, a pause between flights.

Near the water's edge
Where the sky meets the sea
I contemplate the universe
And set my sails free.

The combination of “space and place” encourages both contemplation and creativity. It’s no wonder that creatives of all types choose coastal areas to do their work.

And, of course, no trip to Maine is complete without water, granite, and lobster.

Every little town has its own, cute bookstore. Blue Hill’s is, naturally enough, Blue Hill Books, a community-based, independent bookstore. They will carry Happy Landings: Emilie Loring’s Life, Writing, and Wisdom–a perfect match of location, author, and content.

We hope to have a book club event, too, for which members of multiple book clubs will read Happy Landings as well as one of Emilie’s Maine-based books. At the end, we’ll get together in Blue Hill to discuss them together.

Maybe your local book club would like to participate. Let me know. We can figure out the details between now and the book’s release in March 2023. (Write to: contact@pattibender.com)

History

Art and history meld in Maine, mixtures of vintage and modern. This mirror-backed candle would have been comfortable in a seaside cottage one hundred years ago and still serves in occasional electric outages. These crazy-bright, Caribbean fish are found all over town, from my cottage to Marlintini’s, my favorite local restaurant. And the treble-clef fireplace tool was made when Blue Hill’s music colony was in its heyday.

When the Lorings traveled by car in the early 1930s, they crossed the Penobscot River by ferry. Now, Bucksport’s awe-inspiring bridge spans the distance, and we drive right over.

Emilie Loring’s Maine Novels

Fall is here, and winter won’t be far behind. For most of us, that means a trip to Maine will have to wait. Until then, immerse yourself in the atmosphere by reading one of Emilie’s Maine stories:

• Here Comes the Sun!
• A Certain Crossroad
• Gay Courage
• Uncharted Seas
• Hilltops Clear
• Give Me One Summer
• Where Beauty Dwells
• I Hear Adventure Calling
• To Love and to Honor
• For All Your Life (Partially ghostwritten)