Dogtown Death and Enchantment in a New England Ghost Town

by East, Elyssa

• ISBN13: 9781416587057
• ISBN10: 1416587055
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-10-12
• Publisher: Free Press

Summary

The area known as Dogtownan isolated colonial ruin and surrounding 3,000-acre woodland in seaside Gloucester, Massachusettshas long exerted a powerful influence over artists, writers, eccentrics, and nature lovers. 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. 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. 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. Winner of the 2010 L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award in nonfiction and named a Must-Read Book by the Massachusetts Book Awards,Dogtowntakes 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.

Author Biography

Elyssa East's writing has been published in The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News, and Kansas City Star. A native of Georgia, East currently resides in New York City.

Table of Contents

Prologue The Prophetic Pictures	p. 1
The Birth of Tragedy	p. 11
Follow the Brush	p. 21
Cynomancy	p. 33
The Painter of Dogtown	p. 38
Le Beauport	p. 45
The Baron in the Trees	p. 55
Ghost Dog	p. 64
Rollicking Apparitions	p. 69
Taking Care of Its Own	p. 75
In the Time of Pirates	p. 86
The Green Man	p. 93
Dooming the Seats	p. 99
Shadow Hunting	p. 106
God's Burning Finger	p. 112
Confession	p. 119
In Gypsy Ways	p. 129
"Viva San Petro!"	p. 139
Life's Book	p. 148
Island Heart of Darkness	p. 55
Maximus, to Dogtown	p. 161
The Masked Man in Yellow	p. 171
The Geography of Being	p. 180
Into the Deep Woods	p. 193
City Bred Tenderfoots	p. 200
"No Intention of Leaving This Courtroom Alive"	p. 206
Nature Working Her Magic Unmolested	p. 213
Confabulation	p. 227
Mountains in Stone	p. 239
Epilogue	p. 246
Author's Note	p. 253
Appendix: Notes on the Term "Dogtown"	p. 254
Notes	p. 257
Acknowledgments	p. 280
Index	p. 283
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