Eleanor Mayo

Eleanor Ruth Mayo at 4 years old in Southeast Harbor, Maine. Eleanor Mayo (1920–1981) was an American mid-twentieth-century novelist. She spent most of her life on Mount Desert Island, Maine. Raised in Southwest Harbor, Maine, Mayo was the long-time partner and companion of fellow Maine novelist Ruth Moore.

Personal life Mayo was introduced to well known Maine novelist Ruth Moore in the summer of 1940 by the latter's sister who had been Mayo's high school teacher. They soon fell in love and became a couple. Ruth Moore wrote of the stir caused by Mayo's election: "A great flurry it got in all the papers and on the radio, and all the old diehards and shellbacks in town, who think 'wimmen's fit fa one thing and that's all, by God,' are standing on their heads and spinning."

Photograph Collection Although Mayo is known as an author, she was also an amateur photographer and dedicated time to collecting and copying the photographs of her neighbors and the residents of Mount Desert Island with the intention of using them to illustrate the history of Tremont that she was writing.