Dogtown: Death and Enchantment in a New England Ghost Town
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.62 (603 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 1416587055 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 304 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-11-09 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Winship/PEN New England Award in nonfiction and named a Must-Read Book by the Massachusetts Book Awards, Dogtown takes readers into an unforgettable place brimming with tragedy, eccentricity, and fascinating lore, and examines the idea that some places can inspire both good and evil, poetry and murder.. Winner of the 2010 L.L. In 1984, a brutal murder took place there: a mentally disturbed local outcast crushed the skull of a beloved schoolteacher as she walked in the woods. But its history is also woven through with tales of witches, supernatural sightings, pirates, former slaves, drifters, and the many dogs Revolutionary War widows kept for protection and for which the area was named. The area known as Dogtown—an isolated colonial ruin and surrounding 3,000-acre woodland in seaside Gloucester, Massachusetts—has long exerted a powerful influence over artists, writers, eccentrics, and nature lovers. In this award-winning debut, Elyssa East evocatively interlaces the story of the grisly murder with the strange, dark history of this wilderness ghost town and explores the possibility that certain landscapes wield their own unique power
The author's succinct description of her fascinating, richly detailed and remarkably evocative exploration of a long-deserted colonial village amid a 3,600-acre woodland doesn't do justice to the quirky originality of Dogtown. All rights reserved. Some readers will appreciate the author's vanishing into her subject, which is certainly strong enough to stand alone, while others might feel an absence in this evocation of, as Hartley described it, one of these strange wild places where the chemistry of the universe is
Not your typical walk in the woods jd103 About 35 years ago, I got excited to hear Harry Chapin singing about (broadly speaking) my part of the world:"Up in Massachusetts there's a little spit of landThe men who make the maps, yes, they call the place Cape AnnThe men who do the fishing call it Gloucester Harbor SoundBut the women left behind, they call the place Dogtown"Heads & TalesSo when I got this book, one of the first things I did was check the index and found that the song was mentioned. Next, I looked up Thoreau and found that his journal entry about the area was quoted.When I actually . "Tedious" according to Keith B.. Elyssa East's favorite artist produced a series of paintings based on the abandoned Dogtown wilderness near Gloucester, MA. Trying to find some spiritual growth she visited the area, heard some of the typical small town New England gossip that surrounds any area that's been inhabited for hundreds of years and decided to write a book about the place.It feels like she started out to write a biography of the artist, Marsden Hartley, found that wouldn't make more than a short story then decided to add in the tale of a recent (1980's) murder that took place i. The ghosts of a town. "Dogtown" is about the area around seaside Glouchester Massachusetts. This area has an eccentric history of witches, ghosts, pirates and strange crimes. Elyssa East, the author is drawn to the town due to the paintings of Marsden Hartley, and how his paintings and life in the dogtown area saved him from mental illness. East intersperses tales of the exotic history of the town with a murder that took place in 198The ghosts of a town. L. Jonsson "Dogtown" is about the area around seaside Glouchester Massachusetts. This area has an eccentric history of witches, ghosts, pirates and strange crimes. Elyssa East, the author is drawn to the town due to the paintings of Marsden Hartley, and how his paintings and life in the dogtown area saved him from mental illness. East intersperses tales of the exotic history of the town with a murder that took place in 1984. A teacher, Anne Theresa Phinney Natti, was murdered while walking in the dogtown area by a reclusive mentally challenged man, Peter Hodgkins. . . A teacher, Anne Theresa Phinney Natti, was murdered while walking in the dogtown area by a reclusive mentally challenged man, Peter Hodgkins.