‘Ed Muskie’ author at Appleton library

Jim Witherell, author of the biography “Ed Muskie: Made in Maine,” will speak Saturday, July 19, at 11 a.m. at the Mildred Stevens Williams Memorial Library, 2916 Sennebec Road.

The arc of Edmund “Ed” Muskie’s life from modest beginnings to future greatness was singular and unpredictable — an American story that looks plausible only in hindsight. Commemorating the 100th anniversary of Muskie’s birth on March 28, 1914, Witherell’s biography traces Muskie’s life and career through his two terms as governor of Maine.

Born in a mill town in Maine’s western foothills, Muskie seemed to have understood from boyhood that he had another destiny to fulfill. He was a Roman Catholic among Protestants and a Democrat in a state so dominated by Republicans that, he used to joke, the Democrats in Maine could caucus in a phone booth. His aspirations for higher office in postwar Maine seemed unrealistic, yet he became the state’s first Democratic governor in 20 years — and only the second since World War I — while rebuilding Maine’s Democratic Party along the way.

For more information, call 785-5656 or visit appletonlibraryme.org.

Courier Publications’ A&E Editor Dagney C. Ernest can be reached at (207) 594-4401, ext. 115; or dernest@courierpublicationsllc.com.