Mel Allen

A Q&A with the best-selling Maine author about her new book, “Northeaster,” about the Blizzard of 1952.

I am writing this in late summer, a few days after laying to rest my mother-in-law, Mary, beside her husband, who has been waiting more than 40 years for her in the leafy cemetery a short walk from our house. Mary was 96, ready to move on, so this is not a sad story. Instead, […]

From Burlington to Barre, Yankee’s longtime editor, Mel Allen, shares his picks for some of the most beautiful places in Vermont.

From Lizzie Borden to the Smuttynose murders, New England is home to a number of unusual cold cases. Here are 5 well-known unsolved mysteries.

In the last days of September 1978, I joined a potato harvest crew on Donald Gallagher’s farm in northern Aroostook County, Maine. I worked for 40 cents a barrel. To fill a barrel you bent over, put a basket between your legs, and picked potatoes with both hands. After only an hour my legs had […]

The dream of small towns, stone walls, covered bridges, country stores, and town greens are just some of the reasons why people love New England. What’s yours?

At one time, Howard Johnson’s was the largest restaurant chain in the country. In 2015, we visited the last Howard Johnson’s restaurant in New England. It has since closed for good.

Yankee’s long-time Editor shares a list of favorite things to do in Vermont — from the quintessential Vermont town to the perfect foliage drive.

“I doubt the world holds for anyone a more soul-stirring surprise than the first adventure with ice cream.”  —Heywood Broun, New York newspaper columnist, 1921 My first clear memory was of waking up at age 4 from a tonsillectomy on a Caribbean island and a nurse bringing me a dish of vanilla ice cream for […]

Yankee’s long-time Editor, Mel Allen, shares his picks for some of the most beautiful places in Maine — from Ogunquit Beach to Acadia National Park.

From Fenway sausages to September’s apple orchards, here are ten favorite, distinct smells of New England.

“The three great elemental sounds in nature are the sound of rain, the sound of wind in a primeval wood, and the sound of outer ocean on a beach. I have heard them all, and of the three elemental voices, that of ocean is the most awesome, beautiful, and varied.”  —Henry Beston, The Outermost House […]