Gloucester's Bargain With the Sea by Chester Brigham explores the mix of fishing heritage, striking natural beauty, and independent spirit of the Cape Ann communities.

• 275 pages


• 60 illustrations


• Published in 2007


• Paperback


• Dimensions: 6"x9"

Gail McCarthy, book reviewer for the Gloucester Daily Times: "the book offers revealing journals of Gloucester deep-sea skippers, explorers, and the efforts of Rudyard Kipling, T.S. Eliot and Charles Olson to come to terms with maritime Gloucester in fiction and poetry,and looks at the artistic epiphanies experienced by Fitz Henry Lane, Winslow Homer, Childe Hassam, John Sloan and Edward Hopper when painting Gloucester. ... describes with affection the diverse groups that have contributed to Cape Ann's unique character: fishermen, artists, shipyard artisans, stoneworkers in the granite quarries, and the vacationers who filled the sprawling summer hotels in the 19th century."

About the author:
Chet Brigham is constantly astonished by the many facets of life on Cape Ann, and has sought to describe this rich variety in his nonfiction books. In "The Stream I Go A-Fishing In" he tells the story of a "fiddling fisherman" who became a concert violinist and impresario in Manhattan. In "Gloucester's Bargain with the Sea" he explores the factors that atttracted noted artists and writers to Gloucester in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Most recently, in "On Opposite Tacks," he compares an iconic Gloucester fishing captain with a major artist and finds unexpected parallels between the careers of the two men.