When Foley Craddock Tore Off My Grandfather's Thumb

Born and raised in the Maine fishing village of Gotts Island, Ruth Moore (1903–1989) emerged as one of the most important Maine authors of the twentieth century, best known for her authentic portrayals of Maine people and her evocative descriptions of the state. In her time, she was favorably compared to Faulkner, Steinbeck, Caldwell, and O’Connor. She graduated from Albany State Teacher’s College and worked at a variety of jobs in New York, Washington, D.C., and California, including as personal secretary to Mary White Ovington, a founder of the NAACP, and at Reader’s Digest. The Weir, her debut novel in 1943, was hailed by critics and established Moore as an important and popular novelist, but her second novel, Spoonhandle soared to great success, spending fourteen weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. The novel was also made into the movie, Deep Waters. The success of Spoonhandle gave her the financial security to build a house in Bass Harbor and spend the rest of her life writing novels in her home state. Ultimately, she wrote fourteen novels. Moore and her partner, Eleanor Mayo, travelled extensively, but never again lived outside of Maine. Moore died in Bar Harbor in 1989, leaving a nearly unmatched literary legacy.

“It is doubtful if any American writer has ever done a better job of communicating a people, their talk, their thoughts, their geography, and their way of life.”
—The New York Times

"In the rugged company of Faulkner, Caldwell, and Steinbeck, Ruth Moore holds her own." — Saturday Review

Eleanor Mayo (1920–1981), who published five novels, was raised in Southwest Harbor, Maine and lived most of her life on Mount Desert Island. Her novel Turn Home was made in the 1950 film "Tarnished."

Moore was the partner of  Ruth Moore, who she met in 1940.  The house Moore and Mayo built in Bass Harbor in 1947 is now on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.