Bestselling author Ruth Moore (1903-1989) not only wrote some of Maine's greatest novels, but was also a talented poet who published three books of poetry and wrote ballads that have become an ingrained part of pop culture along the coast. Her "The Night Charlie Tended Weir" is frequently performed in theaters and at clambakes. Folksinger Gordon Bok recorded an album based on her ballads. Cold as a Dog and Other Stories is a collection of work from a career that stretches for decades and serves to highlight and showcase the remarkable breadth of her writing talent. The book includes selections of ballads, poems, and short stories that previously appeared in Cold as a Dog and the Wind Northeast, The Tired Apple Tree, Time's Web, and When Foley Craddock Tore Off My Grandfather's Thumb.