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PROVINCETOWN GUIDE
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| DIRECTORY |
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Provincetown :: Wednesday, January 7th 2009
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Letters from Land's End
Remember Your Provincetown by Reading about It
By Kahrin Deines
November 16th, 2008
It’s usually right about now that a lot of people start missing Provincetown. The summer days of simple sand and sun seem long gone. Real life has edged its way back into dominance for the fall, with all of its demands in tow. And, it may be the sad truth that you cannot visit again until the new year.
| Here’s a quick guide to some of the more famous memoirs and histories about Provincetown. While they can’t be as good as being here, they may sate some of your longing before your next visit. |
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But never fear – there’s a way to get your Provincetown fix from a distance. Remember, this is a writer’s town, and many of the writers who have spent time here have spelled out their love for land’s end in books.
So, here’s a quick guide to some of the more famous memoirs and histories about Provincetown. While they can’t be as good as being here, they may sate some of your longing before your next visit.
Among the most well-known books that have been inspired by this place is Mary Heaton Vorse’s “Time and the Town.” Vorse visited Provincetown in 1906 and fell quickly in love. It became her home and center, from which she continued to travel the world as a journalist. Her book is a memoir about her own life in the town, and its people and cultures, from fishermen to bohemians. While its best to read it from front to back, following Vorse’s path from 1907 to 1941, the writing has such a fluid intimacy to it that you can turn to any page and find absorption.
To continue on into the ‘50s and beyond, next find yourself a copy of Josephine C. Del Deo’s “Compass Grass Anthology,” a collection of vignettes about Provincetown characters and places. Del Deo moved to Provincetown in 1953, and she has a wonderful rambling style that brings her portraits to vivid life.
Check out this lovely Del Deo reflection on Vorse and her home: “I see the mirror in an instant, the books, row after row, in Mary Heaton’s room and sense the smell of something special, perhaps old age, perhaps better times. How long the Kibbe Cook house lives out its course will soon be told. It sprawls to the various points of the compass all undone, its seams showing where the weather pries it apart relentlessly. In August, I can hardly foresee its fate one winter longer. I would prop it up, console it, fight for it and comfort it. I look back at the oval mirror. It reflects more than I can see. The dormers eye the changing landscape, each with a different error of refraction but with the same disdain. It is a writer’s house and runs down to the dry song of the cricket.”
For a more recent accounting, pick up Kathy Shorr’s 2003 book “Provincetown: Stories from Land’s End,” which is an informal history of the town. Her book is organized into a series of short “town memoirs,” tracing life at the end of the Cape from the landing of the Pilgrims in 1620 onto the 20th century. Turn to any page and you will find a charming and colorful tale, perhaps about Nancy the life-saving horse who spent her time sliding down dunes on her hindquarters, or maybe about mooncussers, who – as the story goes – held lanterns aloft to lead ships wayward and then plundered the resulting shipwrecks.
Last but not least, in 2005 Karen Christel Krahulik published “Provincetown: From Pilgrim Landing to Gay Resort.” Unlike the above works, her book is a formal history, complete with footnotes and primary sources. It is written in an engaging style, and since Provincetown has such a rich history, it makes for an absorbing read.
Of course, there are many other well-known books about Provincetown, too many to include them all in one short posting. So, as the seasons change and we are pulled even further from carefree summer days on the Cape, Provincetown.com will from time to time present more reading lists for those of you who are yearning for a way to stay connected to your own memorable days at land’s end.
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