Letter From The Editor

PORTLAND

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Editor Production Manager Art Director Advertising Director Advertising Circulation Display Classifieds calendar Pictures

Copy Editing

Colin Sargent Margarete e. Schnauck Nancy D. Sargent Bobbi L. Goodman Buckmaster deWolf John Glass Sandy Joel Sally White Rhonda Farnham M.e. Schnauck Johanna Hanaburgh

Contributing Editors

John Taylor Michael Hughes Marcia Feller Juris Ubans Kendall Merriam Henry Paper David Swartzentruber Dan Domench Anthony Pearson Dennis Gilbert George Hughes J. P. Standish

Publishers: Nancy and Colin Sargent.

Portland Monthly is published by Portland Monthly, Inc., 578Congress Street, Portland, ME 04101.All correspondence should be addressed to 578Congress Street, Portland, ME 04101.

Advertising Office: 578Congress Street, Portland, ME 04101 (207) 775-4339.

Subscriptions: In the U.S. and Canada, $20for 1year, $32 for 2 years, $40for 3 years.

SUMMERGUIDE (May 1988), Vol. 3, No.4, copyright 1988 by Portland Monthly, Inc. All rights reserved. Portland Monthly is mailed at second-class pending mail rates in Portland, ME 04101.(ISSN: 0887-5340).Opinions expressed in articles are those of authors and do not represent editorial positions of Portland Monthly. Letters to the editor are welcome and will be treated as unconditionally assigned for publication and copyright purposes and as subject to Portland Monthly's unrestricted right to edit and comment editorially. Nothing in this issue may be reprinted in whole or in part without written permission from the publishers. Postmaster: Send address changes to: 578Congress Street, Portland, Maine 04101. Return postage must accompany all manuscripts and photographs submitted if they are to be returned, and no responsibility can be assumed for unsolicited materials.

Portland Monthly is published 10 times annually by Portland Monthly, Inc., 578 Congress Street, Portland, ME 04101,in February, March, April, May, June, July, September, October, November, and December.

NIGHTMARE ON BOON ISLAND

ENNETH Roberts died on July 22,1957, 30 years before A Cannibal in Manhattan hit the bestseller lists. But what did he care? In 1956 he got in on cannibalism's ground floor with the publication of Boon Island, his last novel.

I've seen Boon a number of times while riding to the Isles of Shoals in my father's old White outboard. In fact, a perfect day for Maine boating, when the water's like glass, is called a "Boon Island" day because it takes a flawless, calm sea to get' you there and back safely. The tall lighthouse is not white,'it's brown, the color of an old Cushman cookie. Sixteen miles out from Kennebunkport, it's barren, like a whale coming out of the water ... And incredibly lonely.

You can see it from the beaches of Cape Porpus to Portsmouth on a good night, strange and forgotten, lit up like my grandmother's old jewelry, decades away.

Our lead story in this issue is about Dream Islands. Boon is a nightmare island, the true setting for Roberts' grisly account of the winter northeaster of 1710, when the ship Nottingham crashed against Boon Island ledge at night, and the 14surviving crew members, 135 days out of Greenwich, England, were forced to make some terrible choices in order to survive for weeks in the freezing cold.

Let's just say that civilization can invent some "nice distinctions" the further you stray from the Gold Coast.

So if you're looking for the real Maine, for some unspoiled real estate in the land of the Big Storms, try Boon, decidedly on the other side of the horned gate. The. Boon Zone ... Believe me, it's not in immediate danger of becoming a tourist trap.

PORTI..AND YAGIT SERVICES

58 Fore Street, Portland, Maine 207-774~1067

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Cabinet Makers

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