Biddeford History & Heritage Project

Flagg’s career as an author, illustrator, and artist took him on travels from Europe to Hollywood, and his social circle included the rich and famous. He remained fond of his home in Biddeford Pool, however, and brought many of his friends to stay at the house he designed and built there. In his autobiography, James Montgomery Flagg referred to Biddeford Pool as a " tiny Maine Fishing Village." He recounted that he wrote about local folks for a magazine article, thinking he was disguising their identities by changing their names. In spite of the fact that he meant to be "funny and not at all derogatory," people saw through the ruse and stopped talking to him for a while, causing Flagg to declare, "They're powerful tetchy down East."