Wellfleet is among the most picturesque villages on Cape Cod. Its rich history weaves a tale of sailors and boatbuilders, travelers and artists, and even ghosts and pirates. Here, in the pages of Wellfleet, trace the story of this fascinating village, from the old Congregational church steeple, which still tolls the hours according to ships� bells, to Billingsgate, the lost island whose lighthouse and village were swallowed by the sea. Wellfleet�s history is undeniably tied to the sea. Of ...

Nestled deep in the Connecticut River Valley are Amherst and Hadley, two towns responsible for the inspiration of many classic poets, writers, and thinkers of America. Visit a place where Ralph Waldo Emerson ate dinners with Emily Dickinson's family, and see the site on which Noah Webster founded Amherst College. Look through a visual record of small towns, where the seasonal changes of the hills, fields, and woods inspired local writer Ray Stannard Baker and photographer Clifton Johnson. ...

Orleans, at the crook of Cape Cod's elbow, is a place of extraordinary beauty and unforgettable people. From the first known Cape Cod shipwreck, the Sparrowhawk in 1626, to the last Cape Cod wreck of a sailing ship, the Montclair in 1927, the town is bursting with tales to be told. There are the quiet stories of windmills, quahog fishermen, and cranberry harvesters set against the hanging of pirates, the threat of sea serpents, and attacks on Orleans by foreign countries. People flock to R...

Images of America: Amherst and Hadley, Massachusetts is an educational and entertaining volume that will delight residents, visitors, and lovers of history everywhere. Once part of Hadley, the town of Amherst is known the world over as the home of celebrated poet Emily Dickinson. This photographic portrait of Emily's surroundings reveals the beautiful landscape that inspired her art, and also includes less typical but nonetheless significant images of hard-working farmhands, Irish laborers...

When Pres. John F. Kennedy established the Cape Cod National Seashore in 1961, it was acclaimed as the "finest victory ever recorded for the cause of conservation in New England." When erosion and overdevelopment threatened the Cape, the idea of a national seashore took hold, forever protecting this treasured place. The park preserves 44,000 acres of forest, marsh, bog, and ponds, and a 40-mile stretch from Provincetown to Chatham, which Henry David Thoreau called the "Great Beach." Unlike...

Hiwi is a senior in high school whose only friend is his loyal German shepherd. Instead of waking up to catch a flight to spend spring break with his older brother in California, he wakes to a world seemingly devoid of people, except two other passengers.After a timely intervention during a nighttime assassination attempt proves that there are still others left in the world, Hiwi must join forces with a brilliant drug addict, a former treasure hunter, a lawyer, his client, a pair o...

**From the author of Mayflower, Valiant Ambition, and In the Hurricane's Eye--the riveting bestseller tells the story of the true events that inspired Melville's Moby-Dick.Winner of the National Book Award, Nathaniel Philbrick's book is a fantastic saga of survival and adventure, steeped in the lore of whaling, with deep resonance in American literature and history.In 1820, the whaleship Essex was rammed and sunk by an angry sper...

Forbidden Fruit is a collection of fascinating, largely untold tales of ordinary men and women who faced mobs, bloodhounds, bounty hunters, and bullets to be together**—**and defy a system that categorized blacks not only as servants, but as property.In the true love stories of Forbidden Fruit, you will meet sixteen couples who fought for love—love between slaves, between slaves and masters, and between slaves and...

"Gripping. . . . An intrinsically thrilling tale." — New York Times Book ReviewIt was the Perfect Storm, but instead of raging far out in the Atlantic, the Great Hurricane of 1938 left a wake of death and destruction across seven states. Sudden Sea re-creates that terrifying September day in gripping detail, focusing on the intense human drama that unfolded as an unlikely alignment of meteorological conditions conspired to bring t...

No one knows where the term Underground Railroad came from--there were no trains or tracks, only "conductors" who helped escaping slaves to freedom. Including real stories about "passengers" on the "Railroad," this book chronicles slaves' close calls with bounty hunters, exhausting struggles on the road, and what they sacrificed for freedom. With 80 black-and-white illustrations throughout and a sixteen-page black-and-white photo insert, the Underground Railroad comes alive!

Following up Betty DeRamus’s Essence bestselling Forbidden Fruit, Freedom by Any Means follows the story of extraordinary acts of courage and love by Blacks in the American slave era with beautifully written and inspiring stories of how slaves used the law**—against all odds—**to gain freedom for themselv...

"Before there was the Perfect Storm, there was the Great Hurricane of 1938. A riveting and wonderfully written account." —Nathaniel PhilbrickOn the night of September 21, 1938, news on the radio was full of the invasion of Czechoslovakia. There was no mention of any severe weather. By the time oceanfront residents noticed an ominous color in the sky, it was too late to escape. In an age before warning systems and the ubiquity of television, this unprecedented storm...