Calendars and financial institutions often show Portland Head Light from the outside. But please be our guests and step inside with us. It’s our mission at Portland Monthly to reveal interior lives.

Because lighthouses have feelings too.

 Scenic overlooks can’t perform miracles alone. It’s what we (and you, our readers) bring to them.

If you’ve read Harlot’s Ghost, you can better see the view of Otter Cliff at Acadia National Park than if you haven’t. Norman Mailer whispers into your ear. He points down the sheer face of the cliff and says the rocks below hiss and steam like a gas-station floor.

Read the full story in the digital magazine above.