Haunted Island


Book Description

It's no surprise that remote Martha's Vineyard is home to a significant population of ghosts. There are the strange entities that just may have played a part in the notorious accident at the Chappaquiddick Bridge. There is the ghost of aristocratic Desire Coffin, called back from the Other Side by the power of music and the memory of lost love. And at one haunted inn, Room 8, accessible only by way of a cramped hidden staircase, is the focus of strange events—including the total disappearance of one guest. After twenty years in print, this classic is now updated and expanded with new information and new stories.




Vineyard Supernatural


Book Description

Holly Nadler, the ghost lady of Martha's Vineyard, won lots of attention for her collections of ghostly accounts on the island in Haunted Island. Now, in her second volume, Nadler brings her sassiness and spunk to investigating and delivering the dirt on even more eerie happenings on an island that is home to the rich, famous — and, yes, the otherworldly. In fact, she says, Martha's Vineyard is America's most haunted island.




Women of Martha's Vineyard


Book Description

Generations of women have traveled to Martha's Vineyard to find solace in its calming waves and varied shoreline. Many prominent and capable women set down roots, contributing to the fabric of the community on the island. Learn of the brilliant poet Nancy Luce, who lived in isolation with her chickens. Emily Post, whose name is synonymous with good manners, sought respite from her personal struggles on the Vineyard. Famed horticulturalist Polly Hill left a perennial legacy for islanders with her tranquil arboretum. In the twentieth century, novelist Dorothy West captured the beauty of Martha's Vineyard with her work. Historian Thomas Dresser provides a series of biographical sketches of these extraordinary women who were bound by their love of the island.




Ghosts of Martha's Vineyard


Book Description

Includes bibliographical references (pages [167]-168) and index.




Whaling on Martha's Vineyard


Book Description

Martha's Vineyard became an integral part of the whaling industry at the beginning of the eighteenth century and inspired a lasting romantic enthusiasm for life on the open ocean. From shorewhaling to daring voyages into the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic Oceans, the insular whaling community offered a tempting path for many young Vineyarders to rise from cabin boy to captain. Local businesses were enticed by the potential profit from whaling voyages, and many reaped generous rewards from successful whale oil harvests. Through memoirs, music and memorabilia, author Thomas Dresser recounts this dramatic history of the bygone era of whaling on Martha's Vineyard.




Hidden History of Martha's Vineyard


Book Description

Celebrated local historian Thomas Dresser unearths the little-known stories that laid the foundations for the community of Martha's Vineyard. Behind the mansions and presidential vacations of Martha's Vineyard hide the lost stories and forgotten events of small-town America. What was the island's role in the Underground Railroad? Why do chickens festoon Nancy Luce's grave? And how did the people of the Vineyard react in 1923 when the rum running ship John Dwight sank with the island's supply of liquor aboard? Delve deep below the surface of history to discover the origin and meaning of local place names and the significance of beloved landmarks.




Spooky Massachusetts


Book Description

What better locale to consider for spooky happenings than the home of the Salem witch trials? From mysteries at sea to ghosts and unexplained footprints, you’ll shiver your way through these mesmerizing tales. Set in the state’s historic towns, charming old islands, and sparsely populated backwoods, the stories in this entertaining and compelling collection are great for the whole family.




Nantucket Ghosts


Book Description

Nantucket Island has just more than 10,000 year-round residents — and a sizeable population of very real ghosts. The 44 tales in this book were collected as oral history. Some of these spirits are benign, even protective; others terrorize the humans who encounter them. All are memorable.




Haunted Cape Cod & the Islands


Book Description

Featuring nearly 50 paranormal events throughout the region, this book has the power to make even the most skeptical among us vulnerable to visits by uninvited guests. Best read by a crackling fire in a house that creaks on a howling snowy night, this collection explores Cape Cod and the Islands that were thought to no longer exist.




Martha's Vineyard in the American Revolution


Book Description

As an isolated island outpost, Martha's Vineyard faced some unique challenges during the American Revolution. Neutrality was maintained at the start of the war due to the impact of the British regulations on the fishing and whaling industries. While political expediency may have dominated the day, Vineyard Patriots protected their homeland against the Royal Navy and contributed to the revolutionary effort against marauding British redcoats. In 1778, two key events--one involving three young women and the second an armada of forty naval ships--crystalized the opinion of Vineyarders that they should no longer remain neutral to British incursions on the Island and, more broadly, on American soil. Join local author Tom Dresser as he reveals the unheralded contributions of islanders to the fight for freedom.