Happy Birthday, L.L. Bean

Maine's iconic bootmaker turns 100 this year, and it's planning quite a big party. I've been privileged to be among the planners, as I write this month over at the day job. Down East Books helped produce an anniversary edition of Leon Leonwood Bean's classic guide to the outdoors, Hunting, Fishing and Camping in collaboration with L.L.'s great-grandson, Bill Gorman. The book is really a hoot, containing as it does bits of Bean's wood wisdom like, "If you get lost, come straight back to camp." I've owned an old edition of this guide for years, so working to update it for the twenty-first century was a dream come true. It's one of those classic titles that really does belong on the shelf of every outdoorsperson.