BUNCH OF GRAPES BOOKSTORE :
« Vineyard Voices, Words, Faces and Voices of Island
People » is a book of some 70 selected excerpts from
interviews with Vineyard people conducted over the last 20 years by
Vineyard oral historian Linsey Lee. The book presents a unique window
on Vineyard history, and the black and white portraits by Ms. Lee and
AP photographer Mark Lennihan provide a moving and highly-polished
accompanment.
Against a backdrop of a fast-changing Vineyard,
these stories bring the past alive and capture a way of life unchanged
for centuries. In vivid recollections reflecting the character and
cadence of the speaker, a picture is presented of lives and traditions
tied to the soil and the sea - farmers, fishermen, whalers, boat
builders. The quixotic and often divergent stories paint a real-life
picture of independent and caring people — some
thriving, some just surviving — in a self-reliant
community frill of hardship and joy. It is a vivid chronicle of what is
special about Martha's Vineyard, and what is in danger of being lost
forever.
These are stories of shipwrecks, cutting ice from
Island ponds, rum running, race relations, one-room schoolhouses,
Wampanoag herbal cures, the role of women, the Gale of 1898, farming
and fishing methods, whaling captains and whaling wives, Portuguese
traditions, the first black church, summer visitors, and much more. The
recollections are of Martha's Vineyard, but the themes are universal
— family joys, struggle against adversity, courage,
hard work, the predictible and unpredictable forces of nature.
Vineyard
Voices is an eye-catching treasure trove of Vineyard
memories, wisdom and humor and contains indispensible information about
the Vineyard of yesterday and today. Each story is a unique thread in
the rich tapestry of lives of the people who define the Vineyard.
All proceeds from the sale of the book will
support the continued collecting of Vineyard oral histories, the work
of the Vineyard Oral History Center and the Martha's Vineyard
Historical Society.
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