Polar Bear &
Company
Independent literary publishing established in 1998 with a primary focus on place. Further related categories of interest include histories, things that inspire (what might be called hope), and the imagination.
Our Books
Fiction, myth, time travel, utopias and dystopias, hybrid beasts and walking violins, spaces just over the horizon; mirror worlds, worlds in worlds; trees of grafted truths, a fanciful warping of facts to create something new, that which has no physical bounds, a place for adult children and childlike adults.
Poetry, philosophy, reflections, words to court epiphany; morsels to evoke original thought; unusual intersections; underdogs who overcome; guides for living; words to turn to in a tough spot; thoughts to chew on; avenues of escape; idea-making; lightning in the blood.
History, archives, gaps in the record, voices that echo through time, memoirs of those who have passed, public memory, loss, traces, accumulated moments that create the present, the present spun backward, lessons, all that has gone before and will likely return in another form.
Location, living landscape, Maine, and more, houses, homes, a mountain, a sea, a complicated and dynamic web of relationships within a geography, a set of circumstances to which you belong, the local and the specific, the internal world turned external, puddles, forests, the early morning dew.
Recent Publications
Soupe du Jour
Above the Gravel Bar
by Dave S Cook
With this book you can put your canoe in a nearby river and travel prehistoric Maine’s Native American canoe routes
Blown Apart by Margaret Brinton
The story begins when a house of suspected Nazi spies is blown up in a small town in Maine. Based on a true story.
At the Place of Lobsters and Crabs
by William Haviland
For thousands of years, native people lived on Deer Isle and the surrounding islands. This is their history.
The Adventures of Sir Goblin
For young adults and not-so-young adults, a well-researched story about a precocious cat in Medieval times.
Nine Lives on the Street
A pampered pet’s luxurious lifestyle comes to an abrupt end and he is suddenly forced to live by his wits on the streets of NYC..
A Winter Apprentice by John Willey
Insights into life in a Maine boatyard, where Willey worked and kept a journal from 1978-79.
Coastal Maine in Words and Art
Seventeen writers tell 28 short stories of Mid-coast Maine with depth, insight, candor, irony, wit and humor.
What the Farmer told the Bard, a Novel of Erotic Panpsychism
by Paul V. Cornell du Houx
“The novel’s chief attraction is Cornell du Houx’s witty, daring, allusive prose.” —The BookLife Prize by Publishers Weekly
Conversations with Quetzalcoatl
by Esther Pasztory
A humorous, lighthearted story about pre-Columbian culture, with flashes of fantasy.
Soto’s Song
by David Kroner, Photographic art by Ramona du Houx
Travel with Soto on his mystical journey through an imagined reality, where he gains perspective and listens to the wisdom in the air, water, fire and earth. Embraced by nature he is able to find truth within himself in his song.
Project Omaha Beach: The Life and Military Service of a Penobscot Indian Elder by Charles Norman Shay
Memoir by decorated WWII medic and Penobscot Indian elder Charles Norman Shay.
Thomas Votary, Medieval Oxford Coroner: The King’s Gold Double Leopards by Richard Davies Medieval Oxford has no law only landowners who try and control Votary so he won’t unveil their secret world but Thomas believes in justice and love.
A little back story
We were founded in 1998, quite literally in a cabin in the woods next to a little brook that feeds into the Kennebec River in Maine. Our first prototypes came before the internet era, before digital printing. Some of our early manuscripts were typed on a typewriter. Even though we’ve enthusiastically embraced new technologies, we operate with the same level of attention to detail that it takes to type out a manuscript letter by letter and bind it by hand. We see publishing as a craft.
We are not interested in standard categories and distinctions. We are drawn to work that explores the edges and isn’t afraid of the shadows, that glows in the dark, has sharp claws and occasionally sleeps in sunbeams. We love genre-bending–academics who break out into fiction, imagination embraced in essay-writing. We are not always interested in what is easy and popular, though we do love a good story. We believe that words can emancipate the world.
Scroll through some of our titles-
Bear Tracks
- Soto’s Song photos by Ramona du Houx – story by David KronerCome see the limited edition fine art photographs by Ramona Cornell du Houx at Gallery Fukurou, 20 Maine Street, Rockland, Maine! Story by David Kroner Travel with Soto on his mystical journey through an imagined reality, where he gains perspectiveContinue reading “Soto’s Song photos by Ramona du Houx – story by David Kroner”
- Photosynthesis photographic art exhibit theme is to protect nature at Gallery FukurouSeptember 3, 2023 Rockland, Maine – Gallery Fukurou will re-open after temporarily closing due to the pandemic with an exhibit that celebrates nature. We are honored to host an exhibit by Yohaku Yorozuya from September 8 to October 1. The showContinue reading “Photosynthesis photographic art exhibit theme is to protect nature at Gallery Fukurou”
- Clipper’s ABC’s in English, French, Spanish and JapaneseAnita de Laguna HavilandIllustrated by Ramona du Houx Purchase via Amazon Finally, a children’s book in four languages! Below are some examples of the playful, educational pages in Clipper’s ABC’s. Journey with Clipper, the adorable Maine island puppy, as he takesContinue reading “Clipper’s ABC’s in English, French, Spanish and Japanese”
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