Moxietown
By Jim Baumer

Moxie, a drink rooted in the 19th century, suddenly finds itself with a rabid following and a festival devoted to its qualities, 125 years later. Like he did with his award-winning book on baseball, When Towns Had Teams, Maine author Jim Baumer once again takes the history of the Pine Tree State and weaves it into a readable account about Moxie, the soft drink that was once bigger than Pepsi and Coca-Cola. Drawing on some of the better source books about Moxie, Baumer creates the first concise, yet thorough and very readable history of Moxie. Beyond that, he helps explain why Lisbon Falls has become the hub of Moxie’s universe, with an annual festival and a local celebrity of sorts,“the Moxie Man,” Frank Anicetti.

Moxietown allows readers to learn about why Lisbon Falls has become the gathering place for friends and aficionados of Dr. Augustin Thompson’s Moxie Nerve Food, with its annual festival and parade that attracts upwards of 20,000 people to the town every July. Representing old-fashioned values and a sense of community, the Moxie Festival is a heaping slice of Americana, delivered Maine-style, washed down by abundant supplies of Moxie, a drink like no other.