“Joyce has one of the nicest, classic New England homes I’ve ever seen. I ended up taking her portrait in her dining room, where she has built-in bookshelves. In fact, her whole house is filled with books. I felt right at home.”

Joyce Butler was born in Portland, Maine. She received her associate degree from Westbrook Junior College in 1953 and an A.B. from Boston University in 1955. She moved first to Kennebunkport in 1959 and then to Kennebunk in 1961. Butler was Kennebunkport Historical Society’s archivist from 1975 to 1979 and the Brick Store Museum’s curator for exhibitions and manuscripts from 1979 to 1995. She has also curated exhibitions for the Maine Historical Society and has served as Kennebunk’s Town Historian since 1990. She has written and contributed to numerous historical publications and exhibition catalogues on a variety of topics and is currently authoring a comprehensive history of Kennebunkport. Joyce Butler is perhaps best known for her definitive treatment of the 1947 Maine forest fires, Wildfire Loose:  The Week Maine Burned. First published in 1978, the book is now in its third edition and holds the distinction of being listed among 100 books that best “reveal the history of the state and the life of its people.” The list was compiled from 400 years of Maine books and published by the University of Maine Press as The Mirror of Maine.

“The Kennebunks represent. . . the best of American life."