What is it like to train as a whitewater guide? What special skills do you need to forage for fiddlehead ferns? What do a handful of Maine auction houses have in common? Why did a village suddenly form on a frozen lake? What is it like to devote a summer to attending county fairs?

The Art of the Myth answers questions like these, and others, about life in Maine. A collection of essays on topics from sea kayaking to maple sugaring, from rural auctioneering to the "tallest lady in the world," from the lost trains of the Allagash to winter camping, petroglyphs, and the history of hand-colored photographs, it is a work whose subject is whatever caught Michael Burke's attention over a 35 year career of living in and writing about Maine.