These ruggedly beautiful, tranquil, often solitary islands inspired the poetry of Edna St Vincent Millay, who summered on Ragged Island; inspired John Greenleaf Whittier, whose 1866 poem, Dead Ship of Harpswell, conjured up specters of topsail schooners swallowed up by cruel seas; and inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose melancholy novel, The Pearl of Orr’s Island, captures the haunting beauty of coastal Maine. Her more famous Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was written in the neighboring mainland town of Brunswick.

To this day the wind howling through the tall spruces, cedars, balsams and pines, can set your imagination churning and transport you back in time The tide rolling into the rocky coves and the ever-changing color of the sea vividly bring to life the paintings of Winslow Homer and Marsden Hartley.