Wave Maker: A Cape Cod Treasure

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Thursday, April 14, 2005

A Cape Cod Treasure

My grandfather, a first generation French-Canadian immigrant (and who became one of the very first federal tax lawyers in Boston), was an eccentric character, inscrutable and silent, prone to raising prize-winning Chrysanthemums in the greenhouse of his classic old home in Chestnut Hill. He was also a voracious reader and a collector of books.

When my grandfather died, my father took custody of the voluminous contents of his library. The complete works of Kipling, Twain, Stevenson and every other significant author, most bound in leather or cloth, were contained in the grand mahogany bookcases of the library in a house, built originally in the early 1800's, where I spent my childhood. And yet, as close as I was to those books, I never read one of them.

Over the course of years, my father handed off the collection to my brothers and me, parceling it out to us in accordance with his assessment of our particular affinities. Because I was, at the time, residing on Cape Cod, I was given an extensive collection of books about Cape Cod.

Part of that collection included the complete works of Joseph C. Lincoln.

Lincoln was born in 1870 in Brewster, Massachusetts, son of a sea captain who had run away to sea at fourteen and died in the harness of his full-rigged ship the year Joseph was born. Having spent his youth on the Cape, he went off to Boston at the urging of family friends to become a banker. After some experience in business and banking houses, Mr. Lincoln decided that as a banker or bookkeeper he would not, nor did he desire to, shine. Eventually, he would turn to writing, and produce a series of 55 books (novels abd ballads) about Cape Cod life and people, including titles such as The Woman-Haters: A Yarn of Eastboro Twin-lights (1925), Keziah Coffin (1910) and Cap'n Eri : a Story of the Coast (1904).

I share this because I have nearly completed reading the entire collection, and I promise you that when I have finished it, I shall begin again with the first (Cap'n Eri).

I commend to you anything of Joseph Lincoln's work that you are able to get your hands on. You can never thank me enough.

Here are some links to learn more about Joseph Lincoln and his works. Have fun:

http://capecodhistory.us/Lincoln.htm#bios

http://capecodhistory.us/Garland-Lincoln/Kilmer1917.html (interview with Joyce Kilmer)

http://capecodhistory.us/Garland-Lincoln/Haeselbarth1913.html (Book News Monthly, 1913)

Posted by: Wave Maker / 11:11 AM/ |