In May the MDI Historical Society's Book Club will read and discuss Love on the Rocks : Stories of Rusticators and Romance on Mount Desert Island edited by John and Kathryn Muether. Our discussion will take via Zoom on May 12, 2025 from 6-7pm.

This anthology celebrates Mount Desert Island in the late 19th century, when it was a summer playground for wealthy out-of-staters, and a place for the rich to meet their future husbands and wives. This era in Maine history spawned a new genre of fiction that was known as “The Bar Harbor Novel,” romance stories about the rich falling in and out of love during their summer sojourns. Dramatic and romantic, these short novels helped intensify the area’s popularity. The 11 pieces included in this collection include those by Constance Harrison, Marion Crawford, Edward Church, and Ervin Wardman.

The book is available locally at all island libraries, at Sherman's, Carroll Drugstore, or directly from Islandport Press.