Eminent Mainers: Succint Biographies of Thousands of Amazing Mainers, Mostly Dead, and a Few People from Away Who Have Done Something U [Paperback]

Arthur Douglas Stover (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2006

Maine is a rural backwater? Meet Hiram Abrams, born in Portland in 1878 the son of a Russian immigrant real estate broker, attended public schools, left school at age sixteen, sold newspapers, bought a cow and started a dairy—and eventually became the founder and president of United Artists. Or Aurelia Gay Mace, born in 1835 in Strong, a Shaker from an early age, credited with the invention of the wire coat hanger. Aurelia achieved national fame in 1890 when she mistook Charles Lewis Tiffany for a tramp, gave him lemonade, brushed his clothes, insisted that he sit down for the noon meal, and sent him off with a box lunch. Tiffany responded by sending her a set of engraved silver. Meet Milton Bradley was born in Vienna (Maine) in 1836, educated at Harvard, worked as a mechanical engineer and patent solicitor, became interested in lithography, developed a board game, "The Checkered Game of Life," and founded the Milton Bradley Company. Or Louise Bogan, who was born in Livermore Falls in 1897, moved to Greenwich Village as a young woman, took up the bohemian life and occasionally drove the get-away car for a fur thief, and ended up as the poetry critic for The New Yorker magazine. Hiram Maxim was born in Sangerville in 1840, demonstrated remarkable ability at whittling at a very early age, and went on to invent the machine gun, cordite, a steam-powered airplane, a twin-rotor helicopter, and much more. And then there's Princess Salm-Salm, born Agnes Elisabeth Winona Leclerque Joy in 1840 in Madawaska, who first achieved notoriety as a circus performer on a galloping horse (while playing an accordion), but then served as a nurse during the Civil War, married a Prussian cavalry officer, journeyed to Mexico to plead for her husband's life after he was captured during the Battle of Querretare, and was later awarded the Prussian Iron Cross for her nursing work after the Franco-Prussian War. Maine—boring? Never!

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...a book to use, peruse and take with several grains of salt and Moxie...a treasure to have on your own shelf..." -- The Courier-Gazette, March 15, 2007

"...deserves to be on the shelf of anyone... interested in this state and the people who have made it what it is..." -- Camden Herald, January 2007

"...fascinating, funny, and very interesting biographical history of a thousand Mainers...each bio a treasure of enlightened facts..." -- Kennebec Journal, July 8, 2007

"...more than 500 pages...over 1,000 mini-portrayals...a compendium that unwittingly becomes a profoundly alluring page-turner." -- Maine Sunday Telegram, January 7, 2007

About the Author

Arthur Douglas Stover is a diligent compiler and researcher with a lifelong interest in history. He is the seasonal docent at the historic Pownalborough Courthouse in Dresden, where he may be found giving tours, mowing the lawn, and taking an occasional nap in the back room.

Product Details

• Paperback: 531 pages
• Publisher: Tilbury House Publishers (November 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0884482855
• ISBN-13: 978-0884482857
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,055,789 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great resource for teachers!!!!, February 9, 2007

By 

D. D. Anderson "Teacher of teachers" (Swarthmore, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Eminent Mainers: Succint Biographies of Thousands of Amazing Mainers, Mostly Dead, and a Few People from Away Who Have Done Something U (Paperback)

This book is a great resource for teachers, especially those who teach history, government, literature, and biography. Teachers live by the stories they tell, stories that link to people, places, and events. Eminent Mainers
is about Americans: native born, immigrants, and descendents. It it illuminating, hysterically funny, and most of all, useful! Buy it for every teacher you know and they will love you forever!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow!, February 9, 2007

By 

Nigel Calder (Princess Anne, MD) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Eminent Mainers: Succint Biographies of Thousands of Amazing Mainers, Mostly Dead, and a Few People from Away Who Have Done Something U (Paperback)

What an incredible amount of work has gone into this unique book. It's about much more than Maine. Through succinct details of hundreds of lives it provides a snapshot of the creative energy that has made the USA what it is today.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's Not Just About Maine!, February 3, 2007

By 

Joe Page "JTP" (Decatur, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eminent Mainers: Succint Biographies of Thousands of Amazing Mainers, Mostly Dead, and a Few People from Away Who Have Done Something U (Paperback)

This is really about a web of people, times, events and places that extends far beyond Maine. The power of Mr Stover's big set of little, though dense and concise, stories of people who just happen to be Mainers is really national and beyond in scope. I live in Atlanta, Georgia yet found several references to people with considerable and lasting impact on Atlanta's development and growth. It would be interesting to build an online community that follows all the threads that Stover begins to unravel for us.