MOORE from page A1 MDI loses the rugged beauty of her native state, the Hobart and in 1936 accompanied her boss Eventually, though, popular taste traditional values and determination of its to California. demanded a return to the more mythical Moore said homesickness for Maine tales of Maine life and by the 1960s, people, she also wrote, with sometime bru- compelled her to begin writing her first Moore's readership had dwindled. By tal honesty, about ignorance, mean-spirited- respected ness and greed. She told about a way of life novel. And when, after five years, she 1979, only Cold as a Dog was still in that was swiftly vanishing as a dispirited could no longer bear California life and a print. It wasn't until Carolyn Chute pub- climate she described as either "rainy or lished The Beans of Egypt Maine, that the generation of Mainers sold their birthrights writer, poet hot" and headed back to New York, she darker side of Maine life earned a large to the highest out-of-state bidders. Born on Gott's island, the daughter of had in hand the almost completed and appreciative audience again. Phillip Moore, a fisherman, storekeeper manuscript of The Weir, a story based on Ruth Moore's work might have been and postmaster, and his wife Lavina her Gott's Island memories. forgotten altogether, had it not been for by Nan Lincoln (Joyce), Moore was educated first in the She also had with her another young folk singer Gordon Bok, who set several island's one-room school house and later aspiring writer from Maine named of her ballads to music and eventually BASS HARBOR - A literary light Eleanor Mayo. At the request of her recorded them. Gary Lawless, owner of a went to live with relatives in Ellsworth to was extinguished this weekend with attend high school. While she often younger sister, Southwest Harbor teacher small specialty publishing house, the the death of Ruth Moore at age 86. Blackberry Press, was captivated by the described her early childhood on Gotts as Eleanor Trask, Moore agreed to take Moore, who published 14 novels salty, rollicking lyrics and in 1986 decid- idyllic, the transition to life on the main- under her wing this promising young stu- and two books of poetry in her life- land was difficult - made more so by ed to republish several of Moore's novels. dent, who was desperate to leave her time, was the first author since the Since then, Moore and her work experi- school-mates and teachers who regarded provincial home town and broaden her 19th century's Sarah Orne Jewett to enced a revival in popularity - a phe- islanders as bumpkins. horizons. forgo the popular, romantically rustic nomenon the somewhat reclusive author As much as she hated her high school Back in New York, Moore took an fantasies of life in Maine and to found both amusing and, at times, irritat- experience young Ruth, who came from a unchallenging job with Reader's Digest, choose instead to weave her tales which allowed her the time to complete ing with the attendant clamor for inter- family where education was highly val- from the sturdy, rough-textured fabric views with the "re-discovered" author. ued, did not lose her love of learning and The Weir, published in 1943. of truth. Still, those who were fortunate enough went on to graduate in 1927 from New But it was her second novel, Spoon- As much as she loved her native to be granted an audience with this plain- York State College for Teachers in handle, which she sold to Hollywood state, Moore understood that even her Albany, N.Y. filmmakers in 1946 for $50,000, that gave spoken, unpretentious woman were attachment to her birthplace was influ- Though several of her college profes- Moore the financial security she needed to invariably treated with warmth and can- enced by that chimera of romance and quit her job and take up writing full time. did good humor, along with the clouds of sors were impressed by her creative writ- on the title page of her first published ing efforts and encouraged her to pursue a Although she was also asked to do the cigarette smoke that usually hovered in novel, The Weir, she wrote: the air around the unabashed and unre- literary career, Moore was determined to screenplay for Spoonhandle, she soon dis- "Maine was the place you were become an educator of young minds. covered she hadn't the "knack for that pentant chain-smoker. homesick for, even when you were But her first year at the head of the sort of thing," and bowed out of the con- Betsy Graves may have been the last there." classroom made it clear that it was not the tract. She was also disgusted with Holly- journalist to interview Moore for an arti- While Moore wrote eloquently of vocation for which she was well suited. cle in the Puckerbrush Review last winter. wood's adaptation of her story. see MOORE page A16 "I couldn't stand teaching. It was abso- In 1947, Moore and Mayo returned to In that article, Graves recalls being gently lutely dreadful!" she recalled in a 1987 Mt. Desert Island and built a comfortable cautioned by the author after she confessed interview for Down East Magazine. but modest home in Bass Harbor, where to being enthralled just listening to Moore At the height of the Great Depression, they lived as friends and companions for chat with fellow writer Sandy Phippen. Bar Harbor Moore moved to New York City and the next 40 years until Mayo died in 1981. "Well," she said in her soft smoke- began a series of jobs including various For 30 of those years, Moore continued husky voice, 'don't be too impressed." low-level editorial posts for the YWCA, writing novels about the "real Maine" and But Graves was. And so were all of us December 1989 the NAACP and several magazines. also published her two books of poems who read her works and appreciated being Eventually she landed a job as a and ballads, Cold as a Dog and the Wind told about ourselves in a way that could manuscript typist for author Alice Tisdale Northeast and Time's Web. make even the ugly truth seem beautiful.