Author Robert W. Spencer lives with his wife in Waterford, Maine, in the last of nine mill buildings which once drew hydro power from Waterford’s City Brook. His writing desk sits high about the breached split-rock dam. A graduate of the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) and Radcliffe Landscape Design Seminars (now Boston Architectural College), Robert ran a design/build residential garden practice, Minerva Design, in greater Boston for 20 years. He also co-founded Irish Limestone, US in 1999 – a company that imported and distributed specialty stone to the design and construction trades in the Northeast.

A resident of Charlestown, Massachusetts for nearly forty years, he now savors the pleasures of a rural life that allows time for writing, reading, gardening, and volunteer work for the Waterford Library, Waterford Historical Society, and Friends of City Brook, where he serves as Acting President.

In addition to the recent publication of his first novel of historical fiction, The Spinster’s Hope Chest, Robert has authored three recent lectures which have appeared in print in Waterford Echoes, the newsletter of the Waterford Historical Society. These are: “Gems and Minerals of Waterford”, “History of the Hapgood/Hamlin Carding Mill”, and “Albert Stanwood’s Bucket Mill.” His short story, “At Hollis Dunton’s Gem Mine” recently appeared in Bethel Living magazine in Bethel, Maine.

“Research into history opens the door to so many stories,” Robert says. “Stories which add flesh and blood to historical facts. Thorough research is necessary to portray accurately an era from the past whether it be two hundred years ago or just last year.”