POLAND — William Barry of Portland, author of “Maine: The Wilder Half of New England,” will give a talk and book signing at 5:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 11, at Ricker Memorial Library.

Barry traces 500 years of Maine history, from first contact between Native Americans and European explorers to the achievement of a Down East identity, national political power and worldwide cultural identification.

He notes on the book jacket that Maine, “almost the size of the rest of New England, was the first colonized and is the most forested, sparsely settled and perhaps the most independentminded of New England states.”

“Maine: The Wilder Half of New England” is illustrated with more than 200 drawings, paintings and photographs drawn from collections of the Maine Historical Society, Maine Historic Preservation Commission, Special Collections at the Portland Public Library and Maine State Museum, local historical societies, private collections and even the Vatican.

A historian, writer and exhibition curator, Barry has written or co-authored books with a local focus on topics including the colonial mast trade, care of orphans in Maine institutions, L.L. Bean Inc. and the early HIV/AIDS crisis in Maine.

He has written essays and reviews for Down East Magazine, Portland Magazine, Magazine Antiques and Art New England.

In tandem with his freelance career, he has worked as a reference librarian at the Portland Public Library and at the Maine Historical Society’s Brown Library since 1994.

“Maine: The Wilder Half of New England,” a 288-page paperback, is available from Tilbury House Publishers of Gardiner and at www.tilburyhouse.com.

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