THE MESSIAH IN THE MEMORIAL GYM AND OTHER WRITINGS, 1973-1998, by Sanford Phippen, Blackberry Books, Nobleboro, 1998, 445 pages, $16.95.

The color photograph of a buxom blonde dressed in baby blue, yellow and white, a Mona Lisa smile gracing her rosebud lips, all but leaps off the cover of Sanford Phippen’s latest book. Her name is Alice Janick, a former teaching colleague of Phippen’s whom he photographed a decade ago at low tide near a dock in Cushing.

“If you want a picture Andrew Wyeth never painted, this is it,” cracked Janick while Phippen snapped away. Indeed, Christina Olson, a favorite Wyeth subject, once lived nearby and might have rolled over in her seaside grave had she gotten wind of that remark.

Or maybe not. Opening the book today, she could appreciate how well Phippen has captured the essence of plain Maine families like hers. His new anthology showcases some of his liveliest, most cogent writings from the past 25 years. They are sad, funny and provocative, and thanks to a thorough index, a useful research tool for writers, historians and students of regional literature.

Armed with Mark Twain’s credo, “If you’re going to tell the truth, you better make people laugh, or they’ll kill you,” Phippen, an English teacher at Orono High School and the author and editor of several books, ventures forward. All the while, admitting he has tried to be truthful and funny, but that “I’m afraid there are those readers who don’t see a mite of humor in it.”

His 1982 novel, “The Police Know Everything,” drawing on experiences in his hometown of Hancock Point, polarized readers with its dead-on portrayal of the foibles of Maine life. In “The Messiah,” he included act one of the play which he adapted from the book. Placing it near the end makes for a pleasant change from the earlier columns and interviews.

In the anthology’s numerous book and theater reviews, TV editorials and the like, Phippen leaves no doubt whom, and what, he likes, and doesn’t like.

He prefers Maine writers — some alive, some dead — without pretention. They include Edward Holmes, Ruth Moore, Constance Hunting, E.B. White, John Gould, Stephen and Tabitha King, Philip Booth and Carolyn Chute.

He doesn’t cotton to Bert & I type humor (“as much fun as yet another `Downeast minstrel show”‘), or rich, privileged writers such as Richard Saltonstall Jr., whose 1974 book, “Maine Pilgrimage: The Search for an American Way of Life,” left Phippen pondering, “Is there no room in Mr. Saltonstall’s Downeast utopia for the poor Maine natives?”

I laughed out loud a few times reading this book. Once was near the beginning, while enjoying Phippen’s only published poem (the book’s namesake, alluding an unlikely performance of Handel’s “Mesiah” in UMaine’s Memorial Gymnasium). It is a kaleidoscope of such images as a drive-in theater, carnival girlie show, and a visit to the old Bangor Auditorium, where, with some difficulty, a porky Gene Autry mounted Champion (“The old horse had a right to protest.”).

Also enjoyable are Phippen’s essay on Maine outhouses, his account of dining out with literary great May Sarton and her onetime business manager, Ted Adams, and a 1989 interview he and friend Farnham Blair did with Diane Allen Stewart, secretary to E.B. and Katharine White.

Bangor Daily News readers will appreciate some of his later book reviews republished here, and the inclusion of such well-remembered names as Marshall Stone, Bud Leavitt and Kent Ward. Former BDN editor and reporter David Bright recalls editing the writings of a pre-“Carrie” Stephen King at the University of Maine’s Campus newspaper. King would stroll in just before deadline, Bright recalled, type his “Garbage Truck” column, and it would be letter perfect.

“The Messiah in the Memorial Gym” won’t please everyone. It’s full of pointed criticism, mistrust of “flatlanders,” and views of the Maine inferiority complex that hit very close to home. Also unsettling, for entirely different reasons, are a string of typographical errors, bad punctuation and misspellings that undermine an ambitious literary effort.

That said, Phippen’s body of work makes for lively reading. No one knows Maine people, and his state’s underappreciated literature, more than he. His conscience and compassion shine through on every page.

Sanford Phippen will read and sign copies of “The Messiah in the Memorial Gym” at 2 p.m. today at the Ellsworth Public Library.