L.L. Bean’s “explosive growth” under the leadership of Leon Gorman, grandson of company founder Leon Leonwood Bean and a member of the Class of 1956, is part of the history told in L.L. Bean: The Man and His Company (Tilbury House, 2011) by James L. Witherell.

A review in The Wall Street Journal proclaims, “L.L. Bean will celebrate its centennial next year and will pass this milestone hale, fit and wholly recognizable.”