CAPE COD YESTERDAYS, by JOSEPH C. LINCOLN published by Blue Ribbon Books. 1939. First Edition, 5th Printing. Hardcover. Illustrated.

Cape Cod Yesterdays is a collection of seventeen short essays about Lincoln's personal observations, recollections and anecdotes that evoke a world that is now lost. In the book, Cape Cod, the ship's captains, storekeepers, coach drivers, and spinsters, are depicted with their idiosyncracies and their virtues of hard work, ingenuity, honesty, and thrift.

Lincoln himself was concerned about the future of a changing Cape Cod, and in a letter to the editor of the Boston Traveler on 26 December 1935 he stressed the "preservation of Cape Cod as Cape Cod is" and stated: "how important it is to save our towns and villages from becoming mere copies of towns and villages elsewhere."

Joseph C. Lincoln (1870-1944) was a prolific author of best-selling verses, stories, and novels that portrayed life along the shore of Cape Cod with nostalgia and humor. The son of Captain Joseph and Emily, Lincoln was born in Brewster, a small village that was home port for sea captains, fishermen, innkeepers, shop merchants, and saltworks owners.

Lincoln worked for several years as a bookkeeper in Boston before becoming a commercial artist for The League of American Wheelmen Bulletin (LAW), in which his first poems were published. These early verses (1896-1898), such as “The Ballade of Miss Polly’s Hat” and “Waiting for the Mail,” were often brief, rhymed stories reminiscent of his boyhood experiences on Cape Cod. In 1897 Lincoln and his wife, Florence Ely Sargent, moved to New York, where he continued to submit his stories and poems to Harper’s Weekly, Ainslee’s, and The Saturday Evening Post while working as editor for a banking magazine. His first critical recognition came with the publication of “The Cod-Fisher” in Harper’s Weekly (7 July 1900).

His first novel, Cap’n Eri (1904), a story of three Cape Cod sea captains, became an overnight success. Lincoln wrote hundreds of short stories, poems, yarns, and more than forty novels about the people and villages of his native coast.

CONTENTS:

A WARNING AND AN INVITATION

GOING TO MEETING

I'VE BEEN UP TO BOSTON CITY

THE PACKET'S IN

CLAMS AND QUAHAUGS

TEN CENTS A STICK

PICKING TIME

BANK UP FOR WINTER

THE RUDE FOREFATHERS

GUNNING

FISH WEIRS

RARE OLD SANDWICH

HEAVE AND HAUL

WOULD YOU LIKE FOR ANY?

GRIST TO THE MILL

WRECK ASHORE

CHARACTERS AND YARNS

CONDITION: This book is in good condition. Tight binding, clean text. The cover is soiled, ripped, chipped, scuffed, stained, has some discoloration, and has edge wear. Bumped cover corners. There is a note written on the endpaper at the front of the book. Pages have turned yellow from age. Foxing to paper commensurate with age. This book is an ex-library book. It once belonged to the Saddleback College Library in Mission Viejo, CA. It has library markings, stamps, and an 'old school' pocket for the checkout card. This book has “deckled edged" pages. The pages of the book are not smooth and appear uncut or untrimmed, but it is intentional. Deckle-edged books were the original standard in publishing to make books look and feel “antiquarian". Please see pictures. THE PICTURES ARE TO BE CONSIDERED AS PART OF THE DESCRIPTION. PLEASE REVIEW THEM FOR A BETTER IDEA OF CONDITION.