I had so much fun presenting the History of Dock Square slideshow at the Town House School that Thursday evening last month that I’m working on two more evening presentations; Cape Arundel History in July and Artists of the Kennebunks in August.

The first artist I’m researching is Peggy Bacon. My major source is a 3-hour oral history interview conducted at her Cape Porpoise home in 1973 for the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Her work has always left me with the impression of a sharp but good-natured wit. She infused thousands of art works and 60+ illustrated books with her own unique cocktail of satirical mirth. One thing that took me by surprise in her recording was her erudite transatlantic accent. Now I know of her tragedies, her love of cats, and that she sounded like Catherine Hepburn.

Margaret Frances “Peggy” Bacon was born in Ridgefield, CT in 1895 to two well-known artists of the day, Charles Roswell Bacon and Elizabeth Chase. The family traveled extensively. Though Peggy enjoyed an intellectually stimulating childhood with private tutors, she never attended an actual school until the age of 13. By then, she was already a talented artist and writer. Four years later, her father committed suicide by turning on the gas in his New York City art studio. That had to have been a blow to a young girl just embarking on her formal art education, against all warnings from her parents.

Peggy persisted. She had her first New York City “one-man-show” and published her first book, The true Philosopher and Other Cat Tales, in 1915. Peggy met fellow artist Alexander Brook at Art Students League. They married in 1920. One of their two children, Alexander “Sandy” Brook would grow up to be the Editor/ Publisher of the Kennebunk Star.

Peggy and her husband divorced in 1940. Around that time, she spent several summers among the art crowd at Ogunquit. She visited Kennebunkport several times during the 1940s, capturing village hilarity in drypoint, paint and poetry.

Edith Barry invited Peggy to teach art classes at the Brick Store Museum. She happily accepted the invitation to be near her son Sandy’s family, moving into a rented cape at 18 Langsford Road in 1961. Her Smithsonian exhibit that opened in 1975 was the largest one yet presented there for a living artist.

Peggy Bacon gradually lost her vision. She died in Kennebunk in 1987 at the age of 91.