BIBLIOGRAPHY

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I highly recommend this list of books I have used in my research on Sorrento history.  There are a few others not included here that I have found and will reference those in future posts. If there are other books I have missed that you know about, by all means, please let me know.

Sorrento, A Well-Kept Secret - I will start with the most comprehensive book written on Sorrento history by Catherine O'Clair Herson.  Many residents made contributions to her collection and many of these became the basis of my continuing research.  As informative as Catherine's book is, it left me, however, with lots of unanswered questions to pursue.

Frank Jones, King of the Alemakers - One of the myths I will explore in further posts was that Frank Jones, the New Hampshire ale brewer, was the founder of the Sorrento summer resort.  While he certainly played a very crucial role in the early land company, Catherine's research provided a few hints, and additional research shows that he was not, in fact, the first on the scene.  There is a whole story about the others came before him with the idea of establishing the resort.  Ray Brighton wrote the only published biography of Jones, and he includes a short section on his influence in Sorrento.  Jones was a complicated man and a real forgotten character of the Gilded Age.  While not the best-organized book, it is a critical read to understanding his multifaceted life and the role Sorrento played in his later years.

Sorrento and Sullivan Since 1760 - Lilia A. Clark Johnson wrote this eclectic collection in the late 1950s.  In addition to her essays, she includes a lot of primary source materials as well as many important family tree histories of the early settlers.

A Bicentennial History of Sullivan Maine - Edited by S. Josephine Cooper, this collection of materials and essays was published by the Sullivan-Sorrento Historical Society.  Like Johnson's book above, it contains lots of nuggets of primary source materials and interesting stories.

To Sorrento People, With Love - These are Frances Lamont Robbins' short essays about her early years at the Summer resort, including her descriptions of the first cottages and their families.  I will include her entire book in a later posting.

Torna a Sorrento, 1938-1973 - Written by Lawrence (Larry) Lewis, this is his story of growing up during the summers in Sorrento and includes some wonderful stories.  He also documents the family trees of both Year-Around and Summer families.

Sturge, A Memoir - This is the wonderful biography of Sturgis Haskins written by his friend Sanford Phippen.  Sturge was the original historian of Sorrento having lived most of his life here.  One of my great regrets is having started my in-depth research after his death.  While we did have a few email exchanges regarding some details, much of what he knew will never be able to be recreated.  Sturge did keep archives and several of his collections are available for future researchers.

The Story of Mount Desert Island - I include Samuel Morison's book solely because of his retelling of the story of his grandfather's attempt to buy land in the area before the establishment of Sorrento.  The exact details of this attempt can probably never be established, but I will attempt to explain some of what I have found in later posts.  Regardless, the area might have taken an entirely different direction if his family had been successful in that pursuit rather than decamping to Northeast Harbor in the 1870s.

History of Taunton Bay - John and Marlene Daley, owners of The Galley Restaurant by the Sullivan Bridge published this fascinating book about the history of the area in 2017.  It is filled with tales of the Sullivan Falls, Taunton Bay, and their adventures diving in these waters.  The Galley Restaurant stands on land where a silver mine was once located, and some of their most memorable stories surround their attempts to explore that long-abandoned mine shaft now filled with water.