Night Train at Wiscasset Station (Down East Books; 192pp; $21.95) contains perhaps the most moving representation in words and pictures, of Maine's vanished rural way of life available today. First published by Doubleday in 1977, in barely 20 years the book has become a collector's item. To the great credit of the editors, the book was republished this June. Text by Lew Dietz accompanies the breathtaking, bittersweet black and white photographs of Kosti Ruohomaa in an exploration of life in Maine in the decades following World War II.
In the forward written by the photographer's friend, Andrew Wyeth, Rouhomaa's work is described as having a "mysterious sense of withdrawn reality." Rouhomaa was a Maine Finn. Wyeth suggests that the photographer's heritage contributed to his genius. "Northern people like the Finns, withdrawn thought they may appear, are capable of extreme passion." Lew Dietz's heartfelt and incisive essays on the character of Maine, the people, land, villages, rivers, forests and coast unsentimentally compliment the stunning photographs. Congratulations and thank you, Down East Books for making this unsung classic available to another generation of lovers of Maine.
| December 1998 BOOK REVIEW - by Carol Standish |
