Category: Bar Harbor, Maine

Mac Smith to Speak about his new book “Plain Madeleine” at the Stockton Springs Community Library on Sunday, April 21st at 2:00 PM.

Stockton Springs Community Library (SSCL) will host a talk by author Mac Smith on Sunday, April 21st at 2:00 pm at the Stockton Springs Community Library. The talk will focus on Smith’s new book, Plain Madeleine. 

The story of Madeleine and Colonel John Jacob Astor is very much part of the story of Bar Harbor, Maine. The relatively poor Madeleine Force met Colonel Astor, the third richest man in the United States, in Bar Harbor in 1910. The vicious scandal after their wedding caused the newlyweds to board the Titanic to return to America; the ensuing tragedy would claim the life of the colonel.

Madeleine Astor returned to Bar Harbor after the Titanic disaster, where all eyes were on her, and where she was triumphant in claiming the role of social leader. In 1916, she remarried in the center of Bar Harbor, and gave up everything Astor.

The story follows the 17 years of her second marriage, and then her scandalous third marriage. Madeleine, now in her 40s, married a penniless young boxer and her name erased from the Social Register after that. She died a lonely figure in her 40s.

This new book from historian Mac Smith documents Madeleine’s life in Bar Harbor and the Astor presence on Bar Harbor through Colonel Astor’s family and the Kane family–Astor cousins who were prominent there. It puts Madeleine Astor’s story in the context of Bar Harbor’s Golden Age. In telling Madeleine Astor’s story, the story of a changing Bar Harbor is also revealed. 

A Navy veteran of the first Gulf War and former reporter for The Bar Harbor Times, Mac Smith lives in Stockton Springs, Maine in the village of Sandy Point. He is the author of several books of Maine history, including Mainers on the Titanic, Peyton Place Comes Home to Maine, Siege at the Statehouse, and Disaster at the Bar Harbor Ferry.

Following the talk Mac Smith will sign copies of Plain Madeleine, which will be available for purchase. Copies of his other books will also be available.

Light refreshments will be served. All are welcome.

SSCL is located at 6 Station St. in the heart of Stockton Springs. For more information please contact the library at 207-567-4147.

Mac Smith to speak about “Disaster at the Bar Harbor Ferry” at Stockton Springs Community Library on Sunday, October 9th at 2:00 PM

Stockton Springs Community Library (SSCL) will host a talk by author Mac Smith on Sunday, October 9th at 2:00 PM. Smith will speak about his new book Disaster at the Bar Harbor Ferry.

In an era when the only means of travel to the new, glamorous, and growing resort of Bar Harbor was through a small, isolated, rural-yet-elegant point of land on the mainland in the small town of Hancock, Disaster at the Bar Harbor Ferry tells the true story of what was, at the time, Maine’s deadliest disaster. The heartbreaking tale starts with the arrival of a train overcrowded with passengers anxious to be among the first to cross the bay and their rush for a ferry with too few seats, turning a casual summer Sunday outing into a scene of chaos, tragedy, death and heroism, occurring as quickly as the break of a wooden gangplank. Disaster at the Bar Harbor Ferry tells not only the complete story of the people and the events of that day, but of a time and way of life long gone by and nearly forgotten.

A Navy veteran of the first Gulf War and former reporter for The Bar Harbor Times, Mac Smith now lives in Stockton Springs, Maine, in the village of Sandy Point. He is also the author of Mainers on the Titanic, Siege at the State Capital, Maine’s Hail to the Chief, and Peyton Place Comes Home to Maine.

Following the talk Mac Smith will sign copies of the book which will be available for purchase. Light refreshments will be served. All are welcome.

SSCL is an all-volunteer library located at 6 Station St. in the heart of Stockton Springs. For more information please contact the library at 207-567-4147.