\nBy Chris Bouchard, The County Staff<\/p>\n
Mel Allen didn\u2019t know anyone in Maine when he first arrived in 1970. He was drawn by snow.\n<\/p>\n
By Chris Bouchard, The County Staff<\/p>\n
Mel Allen didn\u2019t know anyone in Maine when he first arrived in 1970. He was drawn by snow.<\/p>\n
In 1969, he was serving in the Peace Corps in sweltering heat on the Colombian coast. He saw snow on film, in photographs and finally in person during a trip to Maine. It was powerful enough to inspire him to move to the Portland area.<\/p>\n
He has remained in New England, and over the last 50 years has written countless stories about the region\u2019s people and charm during his career at Yankee Magazine. Now retired, he has compiled close to 50 stories in his upcoming book \u201cHere in New England,\u201d many set in the Pine Tree State.<\/p>\n
He has discovered stories of trials and triumphs, such as how a lost boy along the Canadian border inspired more than 1,500 Mainers to join the search. He has highlighted Aroostook County\u2019s potato harvest, profiled writer Stephen King and captured the playful rivalry between legendary Bangor Daily News sports editor Bud Leavitt and Red Sox star Ted Williams.<\/p>\n
For the book, he chose stories that connect people and that readers could talk about regardless of their political beliefs, who they are or where they live.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Mel-and-Rudy-1024x683.jpg\")
Photo courtesy of Annie Graves
\u2018HERE IN NEW ENGLAND\u2019 \u2014 Former Yankee editor Mel Allen has retired after nearly 50 years with the New England magazine. He is now promoting a book featuring several stories based in Maine and New England, \u201cHere in New England,\u201d which releases in September. Allen is pictured here with his dog Rudy. <\/p>\n
If there is one thing Allen would like readers to come away with, it would be just how many amazing stories there are Maine and New England, and how remarkable the Northeast region is for being so compact.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 20 minutes, I\u2019m in Massachusetts, in 40 minutes I\u2019m in Vermont, and in an hour I\u2019m in Connecticut,\u201d he said. \u201cSo the people that you read about in this book \u2014 in the other parts of New England \u2014 to me, they\u2019re still neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the short piece \u201cMemories,\u201d Allen shares how he was first inspired to write. He met his teacher Bill Freeland as an 11-year-old in 1957. Freeland would turn off the lights while reading great works of literature to his students, something that Allen later did when he first worked as a teacher in Maine.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we memorized Tennyson and Longfellow, he made us care about the sounds of words,\u201d Allen wrote. \u201cHe was larger than life to all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Allen\u2019s career at Yankee Magazine began in 1977 and ended with his retirement this year. He became the magazine\u2019s fifth editor in 2006. He also worked at the Maine Sunday Telegram.<\/p>\n
And though Allen lived in the Portland area before moving to New Hampshire, he said many of his Maine stories were set north of Augusta.<\/p>\n
In \u201cCaribou,\u201d he writes about the city being a melting pot of different cultures \u2014 French, Swedish, Irish and Native American \u2014 and how the Aroostook County horizons stretch out so far that it feels like being at sea.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo matter where you are or what you believe, you can talk to somebody else about how Caribou once took great pride in being the coldest place in the country,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n