TREMONT — Famed Maine author Ruth Moore will be honored this month during the second annual Ruth Moore Days, which are scheduled from Thursday, July 8, to Wednesday, July 21. A slate of events will commemorate the life, works and impact of the late author.

“It will be all things Ruth,” said performer Jackson Gillman, who was a friend of Ms. Moore’s.

The festivities will culminate with a celebration of Ms. Moore’s birthday, complete with cake and readings of her work by Maine Sen. Dennis Damon.

Born and raised on Gott’s Island, Ms. Moore graduated from the State Teacher’s College in Albany, N.Y., and worked as a secretary in the NAACP, and as an editor for “Reader’s Digest” before coming back to settle in Bass Harbor with her partner, Eleanor Mayo. Ms. Moore died in 1989.

She is well known for her novels, ballads, short fiction and poetry that evoked Maine island life and sense of place, according to Bass Harbor Memorial Library director Clara Baker.

The event “is really a way to recognize and celebrate this author. It’s a way to affirm the way of life,” said Ms. Baker, who explained that she tried to balance honoring the author, without glorifying her. In attempt to preserve Ms. Moore’s notorious sense of privacy, Ms. Baker said she worked toward create a meaningful celebration to bring Ms. Moore’s writing to life in an academic context.

The first event, “Ruth Moore Revisited,” on Thursday, July 8, features Mr. Gillman reciting and performing several of Moore’s classic ballads. Mr. Gillman, a one-man theater performance company and College of the Atlantic alumnus, described his show as “drawing on my connections to Ruth and her writings.”

Mr. Gillman said the first time he met Ms. Moore was when he knocked on her front door. At the time he worked in Southwest Harbor at the Deck House Cabaret as a singing waiter, and had been cautioned that Ms. Moore did not necessarily take to strangers.

“I was warned that Ruth was a very private individual,” said Mr. Gillman.

Despite these warnings, and his anxiety, Mr. Gillman became friends with Ms. Moore and visited her annually when he came back to MDI, after he moved off-island.

“I don’t get to do this material often,” he said. “I’ll have to dust it off. I used to perform it a lot in the past, but it’s in here, like an old friend.”

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