Chronicles the annual migration of the alewives, beginning in the spring when these members of the herring family leave the ocean and come inland to spawn and following their journey through streams to freshwater ponds on Cape Cod

The author records his observations of nature during the twelve months he spent in a Cape Cod beach house

A detailed portrait of, and a subtle analysis on, the nature of a particular Cape Cod neighborhood sketches the locale's human and natural communities and delineates both the visible and invisible ties between them

A physician reflects on the changing moods of land and sea, as well as the flora and fauna of the salt marsh and woods, as seen from his farmhouse located in one of Cape Cod's marshes, in a new edition of a memoir first published in 1947. Reprint.

The author shares her experiences living on the shore of Cape Cod, and the process of becoming one of the natives.

Product Description: A well-known Cape naturalist, geologist, and public educator has written the first comprehensive natural history of the area, describing life and natural processes in its varied environments, from ocean beach to cranberry bog to deep woods...read more

Focusing the region of Cape Code, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket, the author of The Adirondacks serves up a compelling natural and human history of this region, covering Native American and European inhabitation, shipwrecks, hurricanes, sperm whales, religion, revolution, and other key facets of this Massachusetts area. Reprint. 17,500 first printing.

Essays on the natural history of the Cape Cod region of New England document changes in the environment, and in the author's life. Reprint. 10,000 first printing.

Cape Cod, that sandy, wind-swept enchantress, has captivated many writers, among them Henry David Thoreau, whose descriptions of that "wild, rank place" have fired the imaginations of not one but many generations. Among Thoreau's literary progeny is David Gessner, but this book goes far beyond the naturalist's focus on the transcendent beauty of the landscape. Rather, Gessner combines his deeply felt sense of place with observations of the Cape's people and with insights about his family, himself, and his art. In a series of interconnected personal essays, he explores his response to his own recently cured cancer and to the lung cancer that is killing his father. Issues of life and death intertwine with images of a land that Gessner finds curiously healing: "Here thoughts are swamped by the smells, sounds, and sights of place. The gentle hypnotic lapping of waves. A prehistoric cormorant on a slick black rock. The delicate lacework of sea grass roots breaking down through a ledge of sand."Gessner's introspection during a year spent writing in the family's weathered cottage portrays another struggle, too. For a young writer just beginning his career, such mighty literary forebears as Thoreau can be imposing, if not paralyzing. Yet the process of sorting through and making peace with the memories of his genetic father gives Gessner the power to declare artistic independence from his literary one. Seeing "something tremendously heroic" about his father's determination to perform mundane tasks in the face of imminent death brings Gessner to realize that "our minds have minds of their own. Reality is fabulous, yes, but we also crave something more. Symbol, perhaps. Meaning." In the end, what Cape Cod comes to mean for Gessner is not just freedom from the past, but love and nobility in the face of death.

Eighteen essays describe the author's experiences exploring the outer half of Cape Cod, and share his observations on nature, ecology, and the relationship between people and their environment

Product Description: “The Cape will probably never have a better celebrant than Hay, and it will probably never again serve as such a perfect metaphor for our present exquisite tension between the guaranteed traditional warmths of the hearth and the cold outer reaches of science...read more

The plants, animals, and birds that may be seen on the sandy shores of Cape Cod are illustrated and described