Odds and Ends From The MUSEUM!
By Trudy Wyman, Curator, Millinocket Society Museum
Millinocket has produced several authors of fiction and has been the setting for some fictional stories by others. They include books for children as well as for adults. The museum has reference copies of some and occasionally has an extra copy (usually out-of-print, for sale).
Rick McAtee has children’s books including Santa Tells Why and his series of Alphabetland books (The Beginning, The Story of R, The Story of O and The Story of Y). Rick has also returned several times to Millinocket to conduct writing workshops for elementary students.
Catherine Luke Perry (Millinocket native writing as Katy Perry) penned several children’s books. Titles include My Grandmother Wears Funny Hats, Gardens are for Looking and The Laughing Lighthouse.
Another author who made Millinocket home for many years and wrote of the spirits that inhabit Katahdin also tried fiction writing. The result was Sensational Lucky-Lou and The Rebellious Lollie Lawrence. Both take place in an earlier Millinocket and are quite a change from her other stories. She, along with her husband Kingman Smith, also did historical writings for the local newspaper during WWII and in the 1970’s.
An author with Millinocket roots is John R. Corrigan. In the early 2000’s, he penned four golfing mysteries featuring character Jack Austin. He also published some poetry. The titles include Cut Shot, Snap Hook and Bad Lie.
The Perpetual series by Brian Huey (not a Millinocketite) began in 2008 with Perpetual: Search. Main characters Matthew and Maria spend time in and about a fictionalized Millinocket in this book and the two that follow (Perpetual: Assassins and Perpetual: Abducted). Huey visited the museum (in municipal building, 2008) and participated in a book signing for the first book.
Please let the museum know of other Millinocket authors or those with ties to Millinocket or that use the area as a setting for their works of fiction or non-fiction. We would like to add to our reference information and also to collect unwanted copies of these books so that we can make them available to others as most are out-of-print.
The museum also has several local cookbooks published by various town organizations and churches. And there are other non-fiction books that were not mentioned in the earlier Odds and Ends column a few weeks ago.
