Douglas Rooks reads from his new book at Winthrop library

WINTHROP — Veteran Maine journalist and columnist Douglas Rooks will read from his newest book, “Rise, Decline and Renewal,” at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 25, at the Bailey Public Library. The event is part of the ongoing Winthrop Lakes Region Forum put on by the Bailey Library and sponsored by the Winthrop Public Library Foundation.

The book was released earlier this year and tells the story of the Maine Democratic Party — how it rose from irrelevance in 1954 with the election of Gov. Ed Muskie, challenged the Republican Party over the next two decades and initiated wide-ranging reforms.

As a journalist, Rooks served as editorial page editor for the Kennebec Journal in Augusta, and editor and publisher of Maine Times. He has written about state government and politics for over 30 years, earning numerous national and regional awards. His book “Statesman: George Mitchell and the Art of the Possible” was published in 2016 by Down East Books.

A graduate of Colby College, he is former board president of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Augusta. He lives with his wife in a 210-year-old farmhouse in West Gardiner. He is currently a local columnist for the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel, and is at work on a biography of Franco jurist and politician Albert Beliveau.

The event is free and open to the public, and will take place in the lower level King Event Room of the library at 39 Bowdoin St. For more information, call the library at 207-377-8673.