A Space for Faith: The Colonial Meeting Houses of New England
Among the Isles of Shoals
An Island Garden
An Island Kingdom
Beyond the Garden Gate: The Life of Celia Laighton Thaxter
Bird Visitors to Star Island
By This Wing
Cold Water Crossing: An Account of the Murders at the Isles of Shoals
Flowers of Star Island, the Isles of Shoals
Forward Through the Ages
Images of America: Isles of Shoals
Land of Lost Content
Letters to Celia
★ Moonlight Murder at Smuttynose
One Woman's Work: The Visual Art of Celia Laighton Thaxter
KIDS Oscar the Herring Gull
Poet on Demand: The Life, Letters, and Works of Celia Thaxter
Religion at the Isles of Shoals
Sandpiper: The Life and Letters of Celia Thaxter
Sprays of Salt: Reminiscences of a Native Shoaler
Star Light
Ten Miles Out
The Ballad of Louis Wagner
KIDS The Bear Who Missed the Boat
★ The Isles of Shoals in Lore and Legend
The Isles of Shoals in the Age of Sail: A Brief History
Wild Flowers of Star Island
★ -- Recently Republished
Gift Certificates—The Perfect Gift!!
Choose any amount, starting at $25.00. No expiration date.
For use on www.shopsonstar.com only.
Buy Gift CertificateAll 'Buy Now' links redirect to Enfield Publishing & Distribution Company, which handles our sales and distribution. You'll provide payment and shipping details at this website. This site also provides the ability to zoom in, enlarge the image, and study its detail. Return to our site any time with your browser's Back button.
★ Isles of Shoals Cookbook (in two volumes)
Faustina Wade and a Committee of Devoted Shoalers
Volume I: $20.00, purchased separately
Volume II: $20.00, purchased separately
2012 Season Special -- ONLINE ONLY -- Both Volume I and Volume II: $25.00
60 years after it was first published, we are excited to reprint the Isles of Shoals Cook Book in its original format. The original woodblock cover is inside the new color cover we are using for this edition.
This wonderful piece of Star Island history has been restored in 2 volumes. Both volumes contain the original cover, the original introductions, and the full table of contents.
Volume 1 features Beverages, Breads, Hors d'Ouvres 'n' Sandwiches, Soups 'n' Chowders, Fish, Meats, Luncheon 'n' Supper Dishes, Vegetables and Salads 'n' Salad Dressings.
NOTICE: There are no pages missing. Volume 1 concludes w/ page 95 of the original Isles of Shoals Cook Book (just prior to the Dessert section.) and the original table of contents is included, which starts on page 205.
Volume 2 features Desserts 'n' Dessert Sauces, Cakes 'n' Cookies (including Celia's receipt for the Graham Pies she would make and serve in her Parlor), Fillings 'n' Frostings, Shoals Chefs, Candy, Quality Cookery, Preserves 'n' Relishes, and Hints.
Make your selection for an individual volume OR our 2012 special offering after clicking the Buy Now button.
Among the Isles of Shoals
Celia Thaxter
$17.95
Published as a book in 1873, Among the Isles of Shoals remained equally popular, printed not only in hardcover but also in a fifty-cent guidebook edition which was sold in railway stations. Now generally considered to be Thaxter's masterpiece, Among the Isles of Shoals is available once again in this new edition.
Thaxter herself was raised on the Isles of Shoals, a group of nine small, rocky islands off the coast of New Hampshire, and she lived there off and on for much of her life. This lyrical volume seamlessly blends natural history, oral tradition, and personal observation to create a work that one critic says "feels somehow distilled from the islands themselves."
The landscape of the Isles of Shoals has changed little since the time when Thaxter wrote this tribute, but as the Hartford Courant noted upon its original publication, "whether the traveler goes to these isles or not, if he has this little volume in his pocket, wherever he is he will have a most charming companion."
Celia Laighton Thaxter (1835-1894) was one of the most popular poets of the late nineteenth century and a leading literary figure who counted among her friends such writers as John Greenleaf Whittier, Sarah Orne Jewett, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. She is best remembered today for her non-fiction books, An Island Garden and Among the Isles of Shoals.
A Space for Faith: The Colonial Meeting Houses of New England
Paul Wainwright
$35.00
Gosport Chapel, Star Island, Isles of Shoals, is beautifully featured in this stirring collection.
When built in the 1700s, meetinghouses were the center of both religious and civic life—concepts not at all separate in colonial New England. Working with four-by-five-inch sheet film and a wooden field camera, photographer Paul Wainwright has collected a wealth of images of New England's surviving colonial meetinghouses that go beyond mere documentation of what these buildings look like—they explore the feeling of "presence" that exists in them.
Employing only natural light, the photographer has captured his sense of intimate wonder that he gets whenever he enters one of these structures. These meetinghouses not only present a fascinating glimpse into our nation's colonial history, but are beautiful as well. An accompanying essay by noted colonial historian Peter Benes elaborates on the communities that built and used these meetinghouses, and traces a narrative rich in the history and architecture of New England.
An Island Garden
Celia Thaxter
$35.00
Reprint of original 1894 manuscript, with a new introduction by Tasha Tudor.
Replica of the original gold embossed cloth-covered volume, in a protective slip case.
Beyond the Garden Gate: The Life of Celia Laighton Thaxter
Norma H. Mandel
$22.95
Celia Laighton Thaxter was an author, painter, gardener, and one of the most popular New England poets of the late nineteenth century. Her nonfiction words, An Island Garden and Among the Isles of Shoals, continue to engage readers; "her prose," Smithsonian Magazine has said, "has a timeless quality that makes delightful reading today."
Much of Thaxter's writing was inspired by the Isles of Shoals, an isolated cluster of islands off the coast of New Hampshire, where she was raised an spent much of her life. As a result, she is often thought to have lived a circumscribed existence, but, as Norma Mandel demonstrates in this new biography, Thaxter was an active participant in Boston's vibrant cultural life.
Her close friends included Sarah Orne Jewett, John Greenleaf Whittier, and James and Annie Fields, and she moved in a literary circle that included such figures as Hawthorne, Emerson, Longfellow, and Holmes. Thaxter was also the hostess of a vibrant sumer salon on Appledore Island, where artists Childe Hassam and William Morris Hunt and musicians Julius Eichberg and William Mason were among the frequent guests.
Drawing on previously unexamined letters and family papers as well as Thaxter's own writings and other sources, Mandel not only reveals new details about the author's life but also places her in a broader literary and cultural context. Mandel offers the most comprehensive biography yet written about Thaxter. By exploring her isolated childhood and early marriage, her embrace of the Aesthetic Movement and her fascination with spiritualism, and her life-long struggle to secure a steady income and care for a disabled child, Mandel uncovers the private life of a writer whose books about the natural world continue to resonate.
Cold Water Crossing: An Account of the Murders at the Isles of Shoals
David Faxon
$15.00
Return to coastal New England, 1873. It's winter and three women are left by themselves on a small island; their men forced to stay overnight on the mainland. A killer learned of the situation, stole a boat and rowed ten miles to commit a shocking crime. One woman escaped to tell her story and provide evidence that resulted in the killer's execution three years later.
This story is a factual reconstruction of a double murder that occurred in March, 1873, off the New England coast. The event was followed closely by newspapers across the country for months. It is unique because of the circumstances surrounding the crime and the controversy that followed. Reconstructed from old newspaper articles, court transcripts, the Internet and other source materials, the essence of the story is as accurate as I have been able to make it.
Names and places are real, as is trial testimony. Where facts and dialogue were available from research and documented sources, they are accurate. Where they were scant or sustained by rumor; yet necessary for the flow of the story and capture of emotions, the interpretations are mine.
This is an attempt to enter the minds of a killer and his victims, in a tragedy that happened many years ago. No one can know for sure what thoughts they had at the time. Those rest with the dead. But a careful examination of what is known can lead to a logical portrayal of circumstances and human reaction on the nights of March 5th and 6th, 1973 and the months beyond.
Religion at the Isles of Shoals
Lois Williams
$15.00
Religion that has been integral to history on the Isles of Shoals.
365 years of history of the Anglicans, Puritans, Missionaries, Unitarian Universalists-UUs, and United Church of Christ-UCCs.
Images of America: Isles of Shoals
Donald Cann, John Galluzzo, Gayle Kadlik
$19.99
It is hard to believe that just three little words, Isles of Shoals, can evoke as much romanticism as they do. Yet when those words are spoken, remembrances of years long past—of one of New England's earliest and most prosperous fishing communities; of Celia Thaxter and her life well spent surrounded by beautiful flowers, fine art, and high-society friends; of "Uncle" Oscar Laighton and his ancient but unfailing smile; and of the Victorian grandeur of the expansive Oceanic and Appledore Hotels—bring one back to the glory days of the Isles of Shoals.
Donald Cann is a member of Star Island Corporation and a park ranger for the National Park Service working in the Boston Harbor Islands National Park Area. John Galluzzo leads public programming for Mass Audubon and has authored more than 20 books on coastal American history. Gayle Kadlik is the former curator of the Vaughn Cottage Museum on Star Island and a descendant of John Downs, author of Sprays of Salt: Reminiscences of a Native Shoaler.
The Images of America series celebrates the history of neighborhoods, towns, and cities across the country. Using archival photographs, each title presents the distinctive stories from the past that shape the character of the community today. Arcadia is proud to play a part in the preservation of local heritage, making history available to all.
Sandpiper: The Life and Letters of Celia Thaxter
Rosamond Thaxter
$19.95
Celia Thaxter graced the literary world of the last century as a rose graces a garden. Sandpiper provides an intimate and authentic view of Celia Thaxter's life and times, and in the telling reflects and revives much of her charm and grace.
Raised with her two brothers on White Island Lighthouse at the Isles of Shoals, off Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Celia Thaxter developed a strong sense of the natural history of the islands. Her marriage at the age of 16 to intellectual Levi Thaxter, who had been her tutor, was her introduction to the literary world of Boston. Her poems first appeared in the Atlantic and she became on of America's favorite authors in the late 19th century. Emerson, Hawthorne, Longfellow, Whittier, Aldrich, and Jewett were among her circle of friends, and they, along with actors, artists, and musicians, came to visit her and vacation at the Appledore Hotel which her family operated on the islands.
Based on family records and traditions as well as previously published works, Sandpiper is an unusual biography. Its author, a granddaughter of Celia Thaxter, wrote with skill and power. The book's many photographs help bring the story of the poet and her world to life. Fully documented and indexed, the book also contains the twenty-one poems that Celia Thaxter regarded as her best.
First issued in 1962, this is the fifth printing of Sandpiper. A valuable introduction to the literary world of the 19th century, it is above all a full-length portrait of the woman who so actively participated in and enjoyed that world.
Poet on Demand: The Life, Letters, and Works of Celia Thaxter
Jane E. Vallier
$12.50
During the last quarter of the nineteenth century Celia Thaxter was the most popular of America's women poets, surpassing in importance many others whose names are better known today. Yet Celia's fame began to wane even before her death in 1894. Perhaps, as Jane Vallier suggests in this study of Thaxter's life, adverse financial circumstances forced the poet to try her hand as a folklorist, juvenile author, freelance journalist, dramatic actress, naturalist, and illustrator, as well.
In this, the first extensive literary biography of Celia Thaxter, author Vallier explains the meaning and symbolism of Thaxter's poetry and describes how Celia's unhappy marriage and her life on the Isles of Shoals, off the coast of New Hampshire, colored her poetry and prose.
Included in this volume is a new introduction with additional photographs, fifty-three of Thaxter's poems plus a reprint of "A Memorable Murder,"" the story of the killing of two women on Smuttynose Island in 1873 and first published in Atlantic Monthly.
Flowers of Star Island, the Isles of Shoals
Richard A. Howard
$15.00
Richard A. Howard (1917-2003) was born in Stamford, Connecticut and grew up in Warren, Ohio. He obtained a B.A. degree and Ph.D. degree from Harvard University in 1940. He served in the armed forces in World War II, where, with his knowedge of botany, he taught soldiers to survive if they were to become stranded in the Pacific. He held various professsional positions after his discharge from the Army, and in 1954, he was appointed Director of the Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. He held this position for 25 years. It was during this time that he visited Star Island as the theme speaker for an All Star Conference in 1964. This book was a result of that visit.
Ideal when paired with J. Howard Lightfoot's photo CD Wild Flowers of Star Island.
Ten Miles Out
Lyman V. Rutledge and Edward F. Rutledge
$15.00
Guidebook to the Isles of Shoals, Portsmouth, New Hampshire. 7th Edition. Featuring history, description of the islands, natural history, and chronology of events.
KIDS The Bear Who Missed the Boat
Portia Williams Weiskel
$15.00
The adventure of the bear who missed the boat is a true story that happened in the summer of 1983. All the characters are real people and the bear still comes out to Star Island. The boat is a ferry once owned by the late Captain Arnold Whittaker and his son Captain Bob Whittaker.
The ferry still makes daily trips between Portsmouth on the mainland of New Hampshire and a group of islands out to sea known as the Isles of Shoals. The islands continue to be a favorite site for conferences and daily visitors, nearly all of whom send up a cheer on the dock announcing that they did come back or vowing that they will come back.
KIDS Oscar the Herring Gull
Nancy M. Donovan
$15.00
Oscar is a herring gull born on Star Island, one of the Isles of Shoals. Through the story of Oscar's life young and old can learn about the ways of gulls. At the end of the story Oscar answers questions one might have about herring gulls and their habits. The author, Nancy Donovan, is a poet and storyteller. The captivating illustrations are by Susan Spellman.
The Isles of Shoals in the Age of Sail: A Brief History
Russell M. Lawson
$21.99
Russell M. Lawson has evoked the fascinating history of the islands, from their discovery to the end of the nineteenth century. It is a must-read for all "Shoalers" who, like the hardy mariners and inspired artists of the past, follow the call of the sea to the Isles of Shoals.
Land of Lost Content
Robert H. Whitaker
$17.00
The Piscataqua River Basin and the Isles of Shoals.
The People. Their Dreams. Their History.
Sprays of Salt: Reminiscences of a Native Shoaler
John W. Downs
$75.00
NOTE: This is a "collector's item." This is being sold as a donation to the Isles of Shoals Association, which supports Star Island.
Sprays of Salt was published in 1944 by John W. Downs, one of the only native Shoalers to recount every day living on the Isles of Shoals during the latter decades of the nineteenth century. Downs' grandfather, John Bragg Downs, was the last of the "Old Shoalers" to inhabit Star Island, holding onto his property until the town of Gosport no longer existed.
Growing up on the Isles of Shoals, the son of many generations of seafaring fishermen, the author retells many an adventure and historical event, both on the islands and on the sea. Tales of swordfishing, lobstering, romping with Indian children, and life as one with the sea are told alongside the more famous stories of shipwrecks, pirate treasure, and murder.
In Sprays of Salt, Downs also includes some family genealogy, especially that of the Caswell, Downs, Foss, Spinney, and Odiorne families. In addition, his life-long interest in, and connection to, the Portsmouth and Piscataqua region is evident as he knowledgeable relates the history of the area.
The original text is reprinted, with the addition of a foreword, several photos, and an index. As perhaps the most rare of all Shoals books and out-of-print for over fifty years, we are pleased to make available again this rare, first-hand account of a native Shoaler.
Browse and Shop the