Overview
Beginning in 1996, historian David Cecelski published a series of essays called "A Historian's Coast" for Coastwatch, the magazine produced by the North Carolina Sea Grant Program. Nineteen of these essays, along with some previously unpublished pieces, are collected in this new book.Each of these essays examines a different aspect of North Carolina's coastal history. Many center around a little-known book or unpublished material. In an effort to make the musty archives come alive, Cecelski sets out to see what the original inspiration for the source is like today.
One essay travels the Waccamaw River, following the same path Nathaniel Bishop wrote about in a book, published in 1874 and 1875. Other inspirations for the essays in this collection include Cecil Buckman's 1873 travel log kept aboard the schooner Ogeechee; passages about Bogue Banks from T. Gilbert Pearson's 1937 autobiography; sections about the Great Alligator Swamp from an unpublished reminiscence by Benjamin Nathan Basnight in the 1920s; Elliott Coues's work while stationed at Fort Macon from 1869 to 1870; James Battle Avirett's 1901 memoir about growing up at the Rich Lands plantation; and Henry Beasley Ansell's unpublished recollections of Knotts Island, written around 1907. When the essays draw from rare primary sources, Cecelski offers a sample of the original material in a sidebar.
Synopsis
Beginning in 1996, historian David Cecelski published a series of essays called "A Historian's Coast" for Coastwatch, the magazine produced by the North Carolina Sea Grant Program. Nineteen of these essays, along with some previously unpublished pieces, are collected in this new book.
Each of these essays examines a different aspect of North Carolina's coastal history. Many center around a little-known book or unpublished material. In an effort to make the musty archives come alive, Cecelski sets out to see what the original inspiration for the source is like today.
One essay travels the Waccamaw River, following the same path Nathaniel Bishop wrote about in a book, published in 1874 and 1875. Other inspirations for the essays in this collection include Cecil Buckman's 1873 travel log kept aboard the schooner Ogeechee; passages about Bogue Banks from T. Gilbert Pearson's 1937 autobiography; sections about the Great Alligator Swamp from an unpublished reminiscence by Benjamin Nathan Basnight in the 1920s; Elliott Coues's work while stationed at Fort Macon from 1869 to 1870; James Battle Avirett's 1901 memoir about growing up at the Rich Lands plantation; and Henry Beasley Ansell's unpublished recollections of Knotts Island, written around 1907. When the essays draw from rare primary sources, Cecelski offers a sample of the original material in a sidebar.
Booknews
This historical and ecological look into North Carolina's coastal past is the result of both scholarly work and the author's personal curiosity of his homeland. During his work as an historian, he stumbled across several never published accounts of life on the barrier islands of the Atlantic, including the memoir of Allen Parker, who grew up as a slave in tidewater North Carolina. In 22 personal, informative and well-illustrated essays originally published in magazine, the author shares what he found in the lost documents, and thoughts on what he has discovered exploring this same coastline today. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)