Best-Selling “Brunswick”? Pulitzer Prize-winning author James Michener...

Best-Selling “Brunswick”? Pulitzer Prize-winning author James Michener bought a summer home in Brunswick, Me., last week. “He wanted to have access to a college library for research,” said Brunswick real estate broker Deborah Morton. Michener often moves to the area he is writing about.

Horse Sense: Ronald Reagan, whose 79th birthday is today, says he’s keeping in shape by pumping iron and trimming trees with a chain saw. Reagan is busy on the speaking circuit too, discussing a balanced-budget amendment. He’s also riding again. “Nothing is so good for the inside of a man as the outside of a horse.”

Paper Trail: Washingtonian magazine is embroiled in a lawsuit with former White House press secretary Ron Nessen. Last October the magazine published an article critical of Nessen that reprinted several letters Nessen had written in the late 1960s to Korean singer Young Hi, whom he later married and subsequently divorced. Nessen was a network news correspondent covering Vietnam at the time. In a suit filed late last month charging invasion of privacy, Nessen seeks more than $50 million. But the suit may bring Nessen in conflict with his ex-wife: She co-wrote the article. Washingtonian editor Jack Limpert said: “We’ll strongly defend her story.”

Queens’ Ransom: Two queens, Elizabeth II and Beatrix, are Europe’s wealthiest women, Harpers and Queen magazine reported in London Sunday. Britain’s Queen Elizabeth has an estimated personal fortune of $8.9 billion, including jewels, race horses, an art collection and thousands of acres of land and mineral rights worldwide. Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands is worth an estimated $4.7 billion.