MPBN and Maine Reads would like to thank all who attended the

Maine Festival of the Book!!

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The first-ever Maine Festival of the Book in Portland took place over three days from June 22-24, 2007, and by every measure the event was a huge success. Beginning with the opening gala at Merrill Auditorium on Friday, June 22 that drew over 500 people right through Sunday's presentations in and around Monument Square -- many of them drawing standing-room-only crowds -- this year's festival included Pulitzer Prize-winners David McCullough and Richard Ford, Dorie McCullough Lawson, Maine Poet Laureate Betsy Sholl, Pulitzer winning poet Maxine Kumin, Jane Brox, Tess Gerritsen, Peter Behrens, Julia Spencer-Fleming, Monica Wood, Neil Rolde, Lewis Robinson, Leon Gorman, and Wes McNair, to name just a few.

MPBN recorded some of these authors, among the nation's most well-known and widely read, talking about their craft, their influences, and the business side of writing.  We're happy to make some of the audio from the festival available here for you, free of charge!

Two-time Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner David McCullough

David McCullough is one of the nation’s most well-known and widely read authors and is a two-time winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Recorded on Friday, June 22, 2007 at Merrill Auditorium, McCullough -- whose voice may be familiar to PBS viewers as the narrator of Ken Burns' epic documentary, "The Civil War" -- reads in his familiar baritone a passage from his best-seller and Pulitzer winner, “John Adams.” He is introduced by Karen Baldacci. (Total time -- 32:55)  Photo credit: NPR

Maine Poet Laureate Betsy Sholl opened the festivities at Merrill Auditorium on Friday, June 22 with readings of three Maine poems from a collection edited by Wes McNair. She read “Body and Soul,” a poem by Peter Harris that describes a day at Fenway Park, followed by York poet Richard Foster’s “Garden Spider” and “A Little Bit of Timely Advice” by Kittery’s Mekeel McBride. (Total time -- 6:40)  Photo credit: The Forecaster.

Maine First Lady Karen Baldacci introduces Rockport novelist Dorie McCullough Lawson, who talks about growing up in a house with her father, Pulitzer winning historian David McCullough. She reads a passage from "Along Comes a Stranger," her second book and her first novel, which she wrote during a time when she was living in Wyoming. (Total time -- 13:25)  Photo credit: The Vineyard Gazette Network.

Pulitzer winner and Maine resident Richard Ford talks about the importance of reading in his life before reading four poems -- two by Edna St. Vincent Millay at the beginning and end, sandwiched around one each by Phillip Booth and Louise Bogan. He is introduced by Maine's First Lady, Karen Baldacci. (Total time -- 9:56)

Tess Gerritsen is a physician and Maine resident in addition to being an author whose medical thrillers have appeared on New York Times bestseller lists. On Saturday, June 23, 2007, Ms. Gerritsen gave a standing-room-only talk at the Portland Public Library on the topic of the making of a bestseller and the many factors that go into publishing a successful novel. She was introduced by Becky Smith, producer of the television program, “Bill Green’s Maine,” for WCSH-TV in Portland. (Total time -- 42:06)

One of Maine’s foremost historians, Neil Rolde of York is a former eight-term state legislator and in 1990 was the state’s Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate. While no longer a holder of elected office, he is still fascinated by the political process and recently published "Continental Liar from the State of Maine: James G. Blaine," a biography of the Mainer who served as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senator, U.S. Secretary of State (twice) and was the 1884 Republican nominee for the U.S. presidency. He talks about Blaine and reads an excerpt from his biography after being introduced by Earle G. Shettleworth Jr., director of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission. (Total time -- 54:49)

Donn Fendler was a 12-year-old boy from Rye, NY back in 1939 when, while on a fishing trip with a small group of friends and relatives, he went on a hike up Mt. Katahdin. After hiking ahead of the group, he turned back to meet his father and became lost, beginning of a 9-day ordeal that made national headlines. On Saturday, June 23, 2007 at the Portland Public Library, he recounted his story, which became the subject of a book for all ages called “Lost on a Mountain in Maine.” The audio ends rather abruptly, just as Mr. Fendler begins to show a video of footage after his rescue. (Total time -- 28:42)

Massachusetts native and current Maine resident Jane Brox, author of “Five Thousand Days Like This One: An American Family History” and “Clearing Land: Legacies of the American Farm,” gives a presentation on the writing of memoirs and the challenge of fully conveying the texture and complexity of a remembered time in the past. She spoke at the Portland Public Library on Saturday, June 23, 2007. (Total time -- 46:31)

Leon Gorman is the grandson of L.L. Bean who started working at the company in 1960 and remains its chairman today. He became president in 1967 and retired from that position in 2001. He took over when the company was still a small catalog operation with one retail store in Freeport and guided it through years of explosive growth while staying true to L.L. Bean’s original vision. He has just published a book called “L.L. Bean: The Making of an American Icon,” and on June 23, 2007 he spoke at the Portland Public Library about his years running the company. He is introduced by Peter Merrill, a member of the library’s board of trustees. (Total time -- 25:06)

Maxine Kumin is a poet and children’s book author from Warren, New Hampshire who in 1973 won a Pulitzer Prize for “Up Country: Poems of New England, New and Selected.” Her poems unsentimentally evoke visions of New England rural life, and her latest collection of poems, “Still to Mow,” is due out in September 2007. On Sunday, June 24, 2007, she read several of her works at the Maine Historical Society. (Total time -- 41:52)