The Good Life
PORTRAIT OF A WOMAN DOWN EAST: SELECTED WRITINGS OF MARY BOLTE edited by Charles G. Bolte '42 Down East Books, 1983. 178 pp., paper, $7.95
The book is that indeed: a portrait, selfportrait in fact, albeit framed by her editor, for perhaps few things portray one's nature more fully than the way one writes about family, about neighbors, about the people of one's time and place, and of the decades before that time in that place. So here, in a portion of the writings of the late Mary Bolte, you will find not only a perceptive, humane, alert personality, but also engrossing, vivid narratives. First (in a section labelled "Before Down East") there are tales of a New Jersey home in the time of the Great Depression, of old and haunted New England from 1692 onward, of "The Dark and Bloodied Ground" of America's Border States; and then (in a section titled "Down East") stories of Maine's towns and their people, their present and their past, in coastal and nearcoastal communities from the valley of the Androscoggin to the valley of the Penobscot.
Of the seventeen chapters in this collec- tion, many reprinted from Vogue, Harper'sBazaar, Atlantic, New York Times, Quest, and Down East, several stand out, at least in the judgment of this reader, as being especially rewarding: "The End of the De- pression" depicts the touching efforts of three children, aged ten and under, to re- lieve their father of the extended trauma of unemployment in the 1930s by selling all their toys and some of their clothing. Its emotional effect is both strong and satisfying. No wonder it was included in Martha Foley's Best American Short Stories 1951.
"Some Lines for Babe" cut deeply if you have ever watched a cherished dog die. "How to Win Over Your Children," with the fruitful ambiguity of its title, lists copy that was originally illustrated by Bill Mauldin. TOQ bad you can only imagine the drawings here, but the text is as trenchant as ever.
"Cape Rosier Revisited" brings vividly to life the Maine peninsula, its surrounding waters, its coves, rocks, and neighboring islands Great Spruce Head, Spectacle Island, Barney's Mistake, Pond Island, Butter Island. For those who have sailed there, or otherwise visited, the pleasure is recognition; those who have not visited may well, after reading this section, be enticed to go there.
"Families Went to Sea" is one of the most fascinating sections of the volume, recording, among others, the story of Mary Patten, who, when her captain-husband fell victim to malaria in 1856, took command of his ship and brought it to port "after fifty storm-filled days"; of Mrs. Morse, who accomplished a similar feat after Captain Morse (instead of her, of whom it had been expected) died; and of one Mrs. Skolfield who, with a pistol, quelled a mutiny in 1895 aboard her husband's vessel
Not least among the writings here is the editor's "Introduction" to his wife's work. An introduction is something I tend to skip reading, or at best to read last, but this is one you should read first. You will finish it with respect, with pleasure, which is much the spirit in which you will finish the whole book.
{Doiwn East Books are obtainable from Box679, Camden, Maine 04843. Ed.}
Edward Holmes teaches creative writing at theUniversity of Maine.
