Grand Manan Book Launch 9/24/14: Blog Post

Book Signing at Library with Deb Davis

Swallowtail Lighthouse

Herring Weir

September 25, 2014

Last night the Grand Manan library hosted the book launch for Zoologies. We had a great island crowd of about 45 people, a few of whom had to race down island from the ferry that arrived at 7 PM. I’m grateful to our host Kendra Neves for her hospitality–and the delicious cakes and fruit provided for all to enjoy after the reading. Our family’s cottage on Grand Manan came to us through the generosity of a librarian, so this night was special to me. In 1956 when our family first visited here, driving up from Connecticut and taking a ferry that slung cars with a winch onto its deck, we stayed at the long-ago demolished Rose Cottage Inn. We all fell in love with island’s grand beauty and rich history as a fishing culture. “We’re going to buy a house,” my mother declared. She was a very determined woman. “We can’t afford it,” my father argued.” “We will use Frances Shed’s money,” she declared. And that we did, buying a small cottage built in 1864 on the long bank near Castalia. Frances Shed had been the librarian at the public library in Wethersfield,Connecticut in the 1930s when my parents moved there from NYC. My mother befriended her, often hosting her for Thanksgiving dinners and such. Frances, a modest women of quiet and proper demeanor, had no family. When she passed, she left her small stock portfolio to my mother. So in the mysterious ways of personal history, libraries have ferried me to this special place and moment.