Second Growth

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.

This may well be her darkest tale as the people of Hillville, Maine face the town’s rapid economic decline with anger, frustration, despair and hopelessness, and the resulting fractures of families, friends and business relationships. There is little to cheer about in Hillville. Moore also injects mystery, suspense, violence, greed and blackmail, blended with compassion, redemption and the sobering satisfaction of seeing people get exactly what’s coming to them. Moore’s deft handling of multiple plotlines is nicely combined with a refreshing romance and other positive examples of Hillville’s chance at second growth.—Bill Bushnell, Kennebec Journal

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