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During the Book Caravan's second summer of traveling around New England, operators Ruth Drake and Pauline Langley, two young Bookshop employees, kept a diary of their experiences. While Bertha Mahony's venture failed to make a profit, it succeeded in spreading the word about great books for children and adults.
Saturday, 30 July 1921 Beverly Farms Day — Parked at West Beach. Car full of children all day who seemed to greatly enjoy it. Business seems to be poor when we park on beaches, as people do not come prepared to buy and seldom wish to come back even if interested. This may not always be the case but has proved so at Beverly and Beverly Farms. P.S. Langley read “Dr. Doolittle” to about fifteen children on the beach.
Spent day at the Tavern, Gloucester. Did a bit of business here on Sunday.
Monday, 1 August 1921 Magnolia Day Drove over from Gloucester in morning. Parked near library on Lexington Avenue, opposite Del Monte’s. Excellent location. Caught the attention of those going to library in A.M. as well as the shoppers who paraded the Ave. and those who had tea at Del Monte’s in P.M. Francis Darling spent day with me.
Annisquam Day Parked in front of P.O. Crowds all day long and great interest in the car. People intelligent and interesting. Mr. Hale evidently helped us out a lot in the advertising line. Miss Hale with us. We all enjoyed the day immensely. Drove back to hotel in evening.
Wednesday, 3 August 1921 East Gloucester Left in early morning for E. Gloucester. Parked near Beach at Bay Rocks in A.M. and opposite the Arcade in P.M. The most interesting of the day’s customers was a workerman who came in at E. Gloucester at the last minute to discover a book on old pewter [?] for which he cared enough to pay the sum of $3.00. Spent night at the Harbor View House (Avoid!!!)
Monday, 15 August 1921 Bar Harbor Car needed repairs so was in shop to noon. Opened up in front of Red Cross offices at noon. Business appears very dull here. Hinebaugh [?] & Browne of N.Y. have a very fine shop here and several stores carry books. The Caravan is not needed, even for Red Cross Drive.
Opened shop in front of Red Cross rooms after first visiting the St. Sauveur Hotel. Little interest shown. Parked in front of Bar Harbor Tea Room in afternoon. The Red Cross have done very little to help car and there seems to be little sense of responsibility on their part in regard to it. Bar Harbor is a bad place for the Caravan. We have decided to go to Seal and Northeast Harbors.
Wednesday, 17 August 1921 Seal Harbor in morning and Jordan Pond for tea and dinner time. Both places showed much interest in the car. Caravan camped at Jordan Pond overnight.
Pouring rain — but we drove from Jordan Pond to Northeast Harbor in the morning. Parked in front of Rock End Hotel — no interest, so drove on to the Kimball House. Here much interest was shown. Both Seal and Northeast are rather interesting but Bar Harbor is not worth visiting again and neither Seal nor Northeast would pay to make a long extra trip to. Drove in evening to within 20 miles of Bangor and camped for the night.
Friday, 19 August 1921 Drove to Bangor and were detained till three having a new tire put on and brakes repaired. Drove on to Belfast and put up for the night at Winsor Hotel.
Belfast Day Opened shop for two hours in morning and then drove to Whitehall Hotel at Camden and had dinner, selling books for an hour afterwards. Drove on to Damariscotta and had tea with Maurice Day and his wife and Henry Sheahan of Firelight Fairy Book fame. In three hours (Belfast and Camden) we did so much business as we have in some whole days. If one can get to hotels just after meal times one can do well. Otherwise not, we think. Drove in evening to Boothbay Harbor.
Sunday, 21 August 1921 Boothbay Harbor — visiting Mr. and Mrs. Chester Rausch, R.D.’s sister and brother-in-law.
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