To the Editor:

As we Mainers begin the observance of the bicentenary of our State’s separation from Massachusetts, a number of people have asked me  to recommend the best book on the subject. I am pleased to suggest a volume by Ronald F. Banks. The title is Maine Becomes A State: The Movement To Separate Maine From Massachusetts, 1785-1820.

It was published in 1970 for the Maine Historical Society by the Wesleyan University Press of Middletown, Connecticut.

Professor Banks was born in Bangor and was a lifelong resident of Maine. He was educated at Gorham State College (B.S.) and at the University of Maine at Orono (M.A., Ph.D.) where he was an Associate Professor of History at UMaine. Regretfully in 1979, he was brutally murdered in New Orleans, LA while attending an Organization of American Historians Convention with his longtime UMaine history colleague, John Hakola.

Since I also attended Gorham State College, Professor Banks and I shared great admiration for the legendary Esther Wood, who in my case urged me to go to graduate school to advance my history background at the University of Connecticut for my M.A. degree in history. From there, I entered the University of Maine and met Professor Banks of the History Department Faculty who also served as Assistant  to the University President.

Stan Howe
Bethel

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