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Bar Harbor Babylon: Murder, Misfortune, and Scandal on Mount Desert Island
Mount Desert Island has attracted scoundrels and scandals for more than 100 years. Steady as the tide, every summer brings a rush of summer residents from eastern cities to the island and nothing thrilled them so much as a good scandal.
In its heyday, Mount Desert was a wild oasis where the summercators could carry on in comparative privacy. Today, unfortunately, unlike Las Vegas, what happened on Mount Desert doesn’t always stay on Mount Desert. The scandals that were the talk of the picnics and outings that filled the summer visitors' days are brought back to life in Bar Harbor Babylon.
Murderers, thieves, cheaters and scammers have all made their mark on the tiny towns of Mount Desert. This book will take the reader on a tour of the misadventures and misfortunes that punctuate the island's wealthy and privileged past.
In its heyday, Mount Desert was a wild oasis where the summercators could carry on in comparative privacy. Today, unfortunately, unlike Las Vegas, what happened on Mount Desert doesn’t always stay on Mount Desert. The scandals that were the talk of the picnics and outings that filled the summer visitors' days are brought back to life in Bar Harbor Babylon.
Murderers, thieves, cheaters and scammers have all made their mark on the tiny towns of Mount Desert. This book will take the reader on a tour of the misadventures and misfortunes that punctuate the island's wealthy and privileged past.
232 pages, Hardcover
Published May 15, 2019
29 people are currently reading
114 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
March 25, 2019
This book is a rather charming yet somewhat catty tell-all about the monied elite from back in the day in this rather exclusive enclave known as Mount Desert Island. It was for the mega-millionaires, the presidents, railroad barons and people of that level. The type of men who bought newspapers and then overworked themselves running them. Whether it was in a yellow journalism war, or trying to squeeze the poor newsboys out of a dime on the cost of the papers themselves, it was all in a day’s work. Then, of course, there were the affairs, the kind that blew up marriages dynasties, none were immune from having their hearts broken, or breaking someone else’s.
A juicy book about the time period and area it’s set in, certainly. There are many different stories shared about many people that were in the news back then, including one I found fascinating about a family that bought the famous Hope diamond, and things that happened to them afterward. You are left to decide for yourself if it was because of the famous “curse” that supposedly went along with the diamond or simply coincidental happenstance. I think I would have listened to the warnings of past history, my luck is not that great to be pushing it! Overall, it’s an interesting, gossipy read that tells a lot about the so-called upper crust here in the United States in bygone days. My thanks for the advance electronic copy that was provided by NetGalley, authors Dan & Leslie Landrigan, and the publisher for my fair review.
3.5 of 5 Stars
See my full review on my BookZone blog: https://wordpress.com/post/bookblog20...
August 30, 2019
I found this book to be very entertaining, not just for the escapades, misfortunes and sexual scandals of the Bar Harbor visiting elite, but also because I am familiar with many of the mansions and the Acadia area. I found the writing to be very descriptive and amusing at times. As a Mainer, I appreciate reading about the foibles of ‘the summer people’, or as we grew up calling them, the ‘summer complaints’. Amazing to read of the money spent and the social necessities created and enjoyed... in such a tiny coastal area! An entertaining read.
July 26, 2023
I thought this was going to be a history of Bar Harbor concentrating of the darker side. Instead it’s a series of stories of rich people behaving badly, many of them barely related to Bar Harbor at all. It’s a bunch of tabloid gossip page nonsense from a century ago. Blech.
May 9, 2019
https://www.themaineedge.com/buzz/mur...
While it certainly remains a significant destination, the Mount Desert Island of today is viewed very differently than the MDI of days gone by. Yes, there are still plenty of wealthy people who summer on the island, their vast estates surrounded by nature’s beauty. But a peek into the island’s history reveals that not long ago, MDI served as a summer playground for the elite of the elite.
And where the elite of the elite gather, scandals are never far behind.
Those scandals are the subject of “Bar Harbor Babylon: Murder, Misfortune, and Scandal on Mount Desert Island” by Dan and Leslie Landrigan. It’s a collection of some of the more salacious stories from MDI’s decades-long stint as the go-to getaway for the rich and unprincipled. This was a time when what happened on MDI definitely stayed on MDI. These are tales of deception and theft, of sex and murder – stories that once served as the kind of cocktail party gossip that only the truly privileged might encounter.
Just the names alone – Rockefeller, Morgan, Vanderbilt, Astor – read like a who’s who of the wealthiest, most powerful families of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These are the people who spent stretches of summer openly and delightedly doing literally whatever they wanted in the considerable privacy provided by the island.
We get the story of J.P. Morgan and his many mistresses. The Vanderbilt divorce that was one of the biggest the world had ever seen. The teen widow Madeline Astor, whose 30-years-older husband went down with the Titanic. Nelson Rockefeller’s infidelities get plenty of page time as well, as does the possibly-related kerfuffle surrounding his demise.
“Bar Harbor Babylon” also spends a fair amount of time with James Blaine. Blaine’s political career didn’t play out the way he wanted – he never managed to get elected President – and he had his share of scandals. One of the big ones was after his 1884 presidential campaign, when Blaine went hard after Grover Cleveland for fathering an illegitimate child; as it turned out, Blaine was going to have to hide from the press because he had a love child of his own. There’s some other stuff, including some time spent with Blaine’s son Jimmie.
But while the famous names are fun, the book’s real highlights are the stories about people whose names haven’t necessarily stayed prominent as the years have passed. These people – well-known and wealthy, real high society types – have largely been forgotten, but their strange and lurid sagas live on.
There’s a section devoted to John Morris, who built his MDI mansion with money he made as the Louisiana Lottery King. Morris amassed his fortune by way of lottery-by-mail; his operation was incredibly lucrative, but the sketchy legality eventually led to him being shut down and lotteries largely disappearing for a few decades (until the government decided to give it a try).
And perhaps the most fascinating character in the whole book is Sir Harry Oakes. A Maine native, born in Sangerville and a graduate of Bowdoin, Oakes devoted his whole life to the idea of getting rich. It was his sole goal, and while it took him 14 years to achieve it, he got there, thanks to his 1912 discovery of what would be the second-largest gold mine in all of the Americas. That wealth took him all the way to the Bahamas, where he would campaign for and receive a knighthood – First Baronet of Nassau.
Harry and his family owned a huge mansion in Bar Harbor; by the late 1930s, the heyday of the Cottage Age had largely passed, but there was still plenty of residual charm. And it was the night before he was to leave Nassau to join his family there in the summer of 1943 that he was murdered – a murder that involved a French count who had eloped with Harry’s daughter … and the Duke of Windsor, Edward VIII himself.
All of this plus some more general hits from the island’s history; we meet George Dorr, who bought Cadillac Mountain, and the McLean family and the fallout from the alleged curse of the Hope Diamond. There are some pretty great stories about the effect of Prohibition on the wealthy summer denizens. There’s even a chapter devoted to the relatively brief but intense relationship between Maine and the Ku Klux Klan.
And through it all, character after bizarre character – wealthy failsons and weirdo quack doctors and serial socialites and even a serial killer – parading through the decades of MDI’s time as the summer getaway of choice for the rich and powerful.
The Landrigans are the writers behind the New England Historical Society; their dedication to history is undeniable. The meticulousness of their methods is obvious; the stories of “Bar Harbor Babylon” are clearly well-researched. Each narrative is rich with detail, bringing the past to bright, bizarre life. The tales being told are true, yes, but they’re also compelling. The source material might be juicy, but a little something extra is required to make it really click. Dan and Leslie Landrigan find the click.
“Bar Harbor Babylon” is a great look at the foolhardy foibles and shadowy scandals that have marked MDI’s time as a summer destination. It’s a fun trip back in time to the island’s swinging, salacious past – an entertaining read for any lover of Maine history.
While it certainly remains a significant destination, the Mount Desert Island of today is viewed very differently than the MDI of days gone by. Yes, there are still plenty of wealthy people who summer on the island, their vast estates surrounded by nature’s beauty. But a peek into the island’s history reveals that not long ago, MDI served as a summer playground for the elite of the elite.
And where the elite of the elite gather, scandals are never far behind.
Those scandals are the subject of “Bar Harbor Babylon: Murder, Misfortune, and Scandal on Mount Desert Island” by Dan and Leslie Landrigan. It’s a collection of some of the more salacious stories from MDI’s decades-long stint as the go-to getaway for the rich and unprincipled. This was a time when what happened on MDI definitely stayed on MDI. These are tales of deception and theft, of sex and murder – stories that once served as the kind of cocktail party gossip that only the truly privileged might encounter.
Just the names alone – Rockefeller, Morgan, Vanderbilt, Astor – read like a who’s who of the wealthiest, most powerful families of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These are the people who spent stretches of summer openly and delightedly doing literally whatever they wanted in the considerable privacy provided by the island.
We get the story of J.P. Morgan and his many mistresses. The Vanderbilt divorce that was one of the biggest the world had ever seen. The teen widow Madeline Astor, whose 30-years-older husband went down with the Titanic. Nelson Rockefeller’s infidelities get plenty of page time as well, as does the possibly-related kerfuffle surrounding his demise.
“Bar Harbor Babylon” also spends a fair amount of time with James Blaine. Blaine’s political career didn’t play out the way he wanted – he never managed to get elected President – and he had his share of scandals. One of the big ones was after his 1884 presidential campaign, when Blaine went hard after Grover Cleveland for fathering an illegitimate child; as it turned out, Blaine was going to have to hide from the press because he had a love child of his own. There’s some other stuff, including some time spent with Blaine’s son Jimmie.
But while the famous names are fun, the book’s real highlights are the stories about people whose names haven’t necessarily stayed prominent as the years have passed. These people – well-known and wealthy, real high society types – have largely been forgotten, but their strange and lurid sagas live on.
There’s a section devoted to John Morris, who built his MDI mansion with money he made as the Louisiana Lottery King. Morris amassed his fortune by way of lottery-by-mail; his operation was incredibly lucrative, but the sketchy legality eventually led to him being shut down and lotteries largely disappearing for a few decades (until the government decided to give it a try).
And perhaps the most fascinating character in the whole book is Sir Harry Oakes. A Maine native, born in Sangerville and a graduate of Bowdoin, Oakes devoted his whole life to the idea of getting rich. It was his sole goal, and while it took him 14 years to achieve it, he got there, thanks to his 1912 discovery of what would be the second-largest gold mine in all of the Americas. That wealth took him all the way to the Bahamas, where he would campaign for and receive a knighthood – First Baronet of Nassau.
Harry and his family owned a huge mansion in Bar Harbor; by the late 1930s, the heyday of the Cottage Age had largely passed, but there was still plenty of residual charm. And it was the night before he was to leave Nassau to join his family there in the summer of 1943 that he was murdered – a murder that involved a French count who had eloped with Harry’s daughter … and the Duke of Windsor, Edward VIII himself.
All of this plus some more general hits from the island’s history; we meet George Dorr, who bought Cadillac Mountain, and the McLean family and the fallout from the alleged curse of the Hope Diamond. There are some pretty great stories about the effect of Prohibition on the wealthy summer denizens. There’s even a chapter devoted to the relatively brief but intense relationship between Maine and the Ku Klux Klan.
And through it all, character after bizarre character – wealthy failsons and weirdo quack doctors and serial socialites and even a serial killer – parading through the decades of MDI’s time as the summer getaway of choice for the rich and powerful.
The Landrigans are the writers behind the New England Historical Society; their dedication to history is undeniable. The meticulousness of their methods is obvious; the stories of “Bar Harbor Babylon” are clearly well-researched. Each narrative is rich with detail, bringing the past to bright, bizarre life. The tales being told are true, yes, but they’re also compelling. The source material might be juicy, but a little something extra is required to make it really click. Dan and Leslie Landrigan find the click.
“Bar Harbor Babylon” is a great look at the foolhardy foibles and shadowy scandals that have marked MDI’s time as a summer destination. It’s a fun trip back in time to the island’s swinging, salacious past – an entertaining read for any lover of Maine history.
August 14, 2022
Vignettes about wealthy Bar Harbor summer people. Mediocre writing and repetitive. Amusing stories and I did finish it.
December 16, 2020
Interesting, if a bit trashy. I looked this up after an article I read somewhere. Mostly stories about the demise of the rich and famous that summered in Bar Harbor in the past. If you like Bar Harbor you will find the stories interesting. Some of them are worth a deeper read and the authors provide a bibliography of source material that has potential.
March 6, 2023
This is one of those “collections of anecdotes plucked and summarized from other, better-written books about more comprehensive subjects” books. As such it’s… okay, but the authors never bother with background information on Bar Harbor, Mount Desert Island, or anything else, and the chapters aren’t arranged in chronological order, so we go from murders in the 1950s to the servant problem in the Gilded Age (which is pretty yikes, based as it is on accounts from employers) to the original theft of the island from the Abenaki people (which is even more yikes, beginning with the fact that they’re referred to repeatedly as “Indians” and continuing through the fact that, again, they’re seen pretty much entirely through the eyes of their white contemporaries - do we really need some of that quoted?).
Many of the stories have little to no relationship with Bar Harbor save that someone involved at some point owned a summer home there, which can get tedious. If I wanted to know about the Louisiana Lottery scam, I’d be reading about that. Additionally, the “summarize it” strategy means that the prose is clumsy and often kind of dumb. Like, this is the kind of book that people worry about AIs writing, honestly. And there’s a weirdly censorious turn to some of it, which makes sense when you’re coming at it from the perspective of gossips - for example the chapter on “the mad Hoyts” which is basically about a family who all struggled with mental illness and addiction while frequently making it into the tabloids for their "bad behavior" - early 20th century Britney, basically. The glib tone undoubtedly matches that of the contemporary tabloids but it’s gross when written down seventy years later; we should know better now.
Many of the stories have little to no relationship with Bar Harbor save that someone involved at some point owned a summer home there, which can get tedious. If I wanted to know about the Louisiana Lottery scam, I’d be reading about that. Additionally, the “summarize it” strategy means that the prose is clumsy and often kind of dumb. Like, this is the kind of book that people worry about AIs writing, honestly. And there’s a weirdly censorious turn to some of it, which makes sense when you’re coming at it from the perspective of gossips - for example the chapter on “the mad Hoyts” which is basically about a family who all struggled with mental illness and addiction while frequently making it into the tabloids for their "bad behavior" - early 20th century Britney, basically. The glib tone undoubtedly matches that of the contemporary tabloids but it’s gross when written down seventy years later; we should know better now.
October 28, 2020
Well, this was fun. As a New Englander, I had no idea that a sparsely populated state like Maine could have such a rich history of corruption. Politics, it would appear, has nothing to do with the size of the population.
I really enjoyed the brief histories of the families in this book--enough to dig deeper into some of them. I know about the terrible fires that wiped out most of the "cottages", and I regretted that we will never be able to experience the beauty and architecture of them, even from a distance.
The book has no pictures, which I think would have enhanced the histories.
In short, this is a very enjoyable book, which is gossipy to be sure, but well-researched. It will definitely leave you curious enough to find out more, and indeed, there is a good bibliography included to get your started.
I really enjoyed the brief histories of the families in this book--enough to dig deeper into some of them. I know about the terrible fires that wiped out most of the "cottages", and I regretted that we will never be able to experience the beauty and architecture of them, even from a distance.
The book has no pictures, which I think would have enhanced the histories.
In short, this is a very enjoyable book, which is gossipy to be sure, but well-researched. It will definitely leave you curious enough to find out more, and indeed, there is a good bibliography included to get your started.
August 14, 2019
a historical account of mount desert island’s wealthy, high society summer residents and their above-the-rules attitudes, crimes, trysts, and dirty tricks + scan👏🏼da👏🏼lous👏🏼
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“For nearly a century, a stream of wealthy summer visitors turned Mount Desert Island into a Petri dish for scandal and intrigue...In its heyday, the visitors to Mount Desert Island enjoyed the salacious details of high-society scandals almost as much as the fresh air and beautiful vistas of the region.”
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instagram book reviews @brettlikesbooks
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“For nearly a century, a stream of wealthy summer visitors turned Mount Desert Island into a Petri dish for scandal and intrigue...In its heyday, the visitors to Mount Desert Island enjoyed the salacious details of high-society scandals almost as much as the fresh air and beautiful vistas of the region.”
•
instagram book reviews @brettlikesbooks
October 15, 2024
Being from the area, I was intrigued to learn about MDI's dark past. While interesting, the book was more about the deplorable affluent getting way with their misdeeds OR their misdeeds catching up with them. Well written and fun, but not my cup of tea.
May 3, 2019
I loved this book! It was so interesting to have a glimpse into the stories behind the famous mansions and the families behind them. If you love history this is a great read. Fun too!
September 1, 2021
Not as engaging as I was hoping for. Some of the stories were rather dull.
December 3, 2022
It's a book you buy when you're on vacation somewhere (Bar Harbor / Acadia National Park in ME) to learn more about the place where you're on vacation. Pretty good for what it is.
September 4, 2023
Dan and Leslie Landrigan should look up the definition of “on.”
April 29, 2024
The part about Maines Kkk pretty nuts. Rich people have losers in their families too. Love that their "cottages" had 31 rooms.
July 26, 2024
The connections to Bar Harbor are weak in some of the vignettes
April 20, 2019
I wanted to love this book because I love history and mystery but the authors didn't write in an engaging style and it seemed stilted and transitions were not smooth. Perhaps they were trying to take blog posts and just put them together one after another without connecting them. I read the kindle edition, so perhaps it was a formatting issue where transitions or breaks will be more clear in a printed version. I also found myself wanting a deeper story than what was included in many of the stories here.
It seems this book could be so much more with some effort and added details.
It seems this book could be so much more with some effort and added details.
October 19, 2025
It’s essentially a gossip blog about famous people that vacationed in bar harbor. Honestly that first sentence sounds like an amazing book, but this one just missed the mark. It’s not all factual, which I understand with gossip can be hard, but I had a hard time getting into the stories. I almost wish it was written as a scandal blog, would’ve been a fun take.
I bought this book years ago to my trip to Acadia NP, and couldn’t finish it for the life of me. I remember trying again later one and same thing. I guess the third time is the charm because I finally finished it and donated it away. About 1/3 through I just start to lose interest and the people start blending together.
I bought this book years ago to my trip to Acadia NP, and couldn’t finish it for the life of me. I remember trying again later one and same thing. I guess the third time is the charm because I finally finished it and donated it away. About 1/3 through I just start to lose interest and the people start blending together.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews