Eleanor Mayo manuscript, undated
Collection Scope and Content
This collection consists of one unpublished manuscript by Mayo, entitled The Pleasure Dome.
Biographical/Historical Note
Born in 1920, novelist Eleanor Mayo grew up in Southwest Harbor, Maine, and from the age of 27 until her death in 1981 she and her life companion, well-known Maine novelist Ruth Moore, lived on Mount Desert Island. Active in local politics, Mayo was the first ever female elected selectman in Tremont, Maine, and later served as the town’s tax assessor for many years.
Mayo published five novels during her lifetime: Turn Home (1945); Loom of the Land (1946); October Fire (1951); Swan’s Harbor (1953) and Forever Stranger (1958). Turn Home was made into the 1950 film Tarnished. In 2004, Maine’s Blackberry Books published When Foley Craddock Tore Off My Grandfather’s Thumb: The Collected Stories of Ruth Moore and Eleanor Mayo.