Synopses & Reviews
The area known as Dogtown -- an isolated colonial ruin and surrounding 3,000-acre woodland in storied seaside Gloucester, Massachusetts -- has long exerted a powerful influence over artists, writers, eccentrics, and nature lovers. But its history is also woven through with tales of witches, supernatural sightings, pirates, former slaves, drifters, and the many dogs Revolutionary War widows kept for protection and for which the area was named. In 1984, a brutal murder took place there: a mentally disturbed local outcast crushed the skull of a beloved schoolteacher as she walked in the woods. Dogtown's peculiar atmosphere -- it is strewn with giant boulders and has been compared to Stonehenge -- and eerie past deepened the pall of this horrific event that continues to haunt Gloucester even today.
In alternating chapters, Elyssa East interlaces the story of this grisly murder with the strange, dark history of this wilderness ghost town and explores the possibility that certain landscapes wield their own unique power.
East knew nothing of Dogtown's bizarre past when she first became interested in the area. As an art student in the early 1990s, she fell in love with the celebrated Modernist painter Marsden Hartley's stark and arresting Dogtown landscapes. She also learned that in the 1930s, Dogtown saved Hartley from a paralyzing depression. Years later, struggling in her own life, East set out to find the mysterious setting that had changed Hartley's life, hoping that she too would find solace and renewal in Dogtown's odd beauty. Instead, she discovered a landscape steeped in intrigue and a community deeply ambivalent about the place: while many residents declare their passion for this profoundly affecting landscape, others avoid it out of a sense of foreboding.
Throughout this richly braided first-person narrative, East brings Dogtown's enigmatic past to life. Losses sustained during the American Revolution dealt this once thriving community its final blow. Destitute war widows and former slaves took up shelter in its decaying homes until 1839, when the last inhabitant was taken to the poorhouse. He died seven days later. Dogtown has remained abandoned ever since, but continues to occupy many people's imaginations. In addition to Marsden Hartley, it inspired a Bible-thumping millionaire who carved the region's rocks with words to live by; the innovative and influential postmodernist poet Charles Olson, who based much of his epic Maximus Poems on Dogtown; an idiosyncratic octogenarian who vigilantly patrols the land to this day; and a murderer who claimed that the spirit of the woods called out to him.
In luminous, insightful prose, Dogtown takes the reader into an unforgettable place brimming with tragedy, eccentricity, and fascinating lore, and examines the idea that some places can inspire both good and evil, poetry and murder.
Review
"A MESMERIZING FUGUE of knife-edge true crime, deviant Yankee Americana, and historical evildoings. With an insider's authenticity, East commands a haunted haven where renowned American thinkers and artists seek hideout, and finds the brilliant pin dot on a mysterious American murder map, charting a community's bouts of wickedness for generations toward a spellbinding modern homicide. No other book captures our colonial ghost history with such chilly quirks, intimate lore, and fireworks. A pure original, East guides us through stunning supernatural gates into a bountiful wilderness." andlt;bandgt; -- MARIA FLOOK, author of andlt;iandgt;Invisible Edenandlt;/iandgt;andlt;/bandgt;
Review
"This book is a wonder. I fell completely under its spell -- Elyssa East does not merely reupholster the old bones of Dogtown, she plunges you headlong into the green mystery of this place; I loved the looking-glass chill of opening her book and finding myself in another world entirely. Dogtown is true literary sorcery, a portal to one of the strangest places in America." andlt;bandgt; -- KAREN RUSSELL, author of andlt;iandgt;St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolvesandlt;/iandgt;andlt;/bandgt;
Review
"Beautifully written, deftly told, and suspenseful to the very end -- a stunning work of reportage. A keenly observant writer with a painter's eye for detail, East explores the strange, hypnotic spell that Dogtown seems to cast upon all -- including herself -- who enter its woods. The result is a riveting and very personal book that both dazzles and unnerves." andlt;bandgt; -- JULIE OTSUKA, author of andlt;iandgt;When the Emperor Was Divineandlt;/iandgt;andlt;/bandgt;
Review
"Elyssa East's narrative history of Dogtown, Massachusetts, is a fascinating book, sometimes strange, sometimes mystical, but always gripping. Her exploration of its dark, eccentric past begs the question: do certain mythic landscapes influence its inhabitants to do great good and, at times, to do great evil?" andlt;bandgt; -- KATHLEEN KENT, author of andlt;iandgt;The Heretic's Daughterandlt;/iandgt;andlt;/bandgt;
Review
"andlt;iandgt;Dogtownandlt;/iandgt; is a haunting and powerful and hypnotic book, a tour-de-force of history. Part novelist, part l940's gumshoe working the streets, Elyssa East is a writer whose wonderful attention to detail and unflinching gaze at human behavior is the rarest of gifts. This book is both an old-fashioned page-turner -- andlt;iandgt;what happened in Dogtown?andlt;/iandgt; -- to a modern social x-ray of small town America. Gloucester, Massachusetts is where very real, very strange, and very memorable life took place, and we need to thank Ms. East for presenting it all to us with the immediacy of a photograph album found in a antique store, dusted off and presented with care and passion." -- Howard Norman, author of andlt;iandgt;What Is Left the Daughterandlt;/iandgt;
Review
and#8220;Dense, wildly digressive, and divided into topical microchapters that cite more than 100 endnotes sometimes only loosely connected to the text, Sheltonand#8217;s singular blend of art-, lit-, and pop-infused intellectualism may not draw a wide readership, but those who enter will find an invigorating analysis of death, art, friendship, and self-discovery.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;A gripping story, a memoir of sorts, a retrospective critique of an artistand#8217;s work, a requiem with no choral amen, a ghost story, an unnerving mysteryand#160;
sansand#160;solution, a chronicle of and#8216;the not quite deadand#8217; and, along with all this, a sociological treatise. Shelton is a genuine craftsman. His prose glows like glass pulled from the furnace. This reader couldnand#8217;t watch from a safe, inflammable distance. By the end, Shelton became my significant other. Experience, knowledge, labored thought and honestyand#8212;what a generous gift he offers the humble reader.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Shelton may be a sociologist by trade, but he is a writer of Southern Gothic at heart, and here he successfully taps into a Southern imagination that exists only in memories turned ghosts (or vice versa). His book is a mesmerizing weaving of biography and cultural analysis, and it bears patience and attention without being "difficult" in the sense you might expect from a book published by an academic press. If you open your doors to the ghosts he has conjured, they will linger a while.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;The sometimes abrupt shifts in subject matter make this a book that has to be read slowly to take in Sheltonand#8217;s arguments. Fortunately this close reading is rewarded, especially in the moments when Shelton moves from more analytical passages to personal reflections, synthesizing the theories heand#8217;s discussing. . . . What makes this book so strangely wonderful is how Shelton moves from the abstract to the personal.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;A powerful, deeply original, and deftly constructed combination of fiction, readings of the work and lives of everyone from Walter Benjamin to Franza Kafka, and contemplations of artist Patrik Keimand#8217;s departure from this world and the violent, beautiful artwork he left in the hands of the bookand#8217;s narrator. The universe ofand#160;
Where the North Sea Touches Alabamaand#160;is an uncanny iteration of our own.and#8221;
Review
andldquo;Allen C. Shelton is really special. From the layering and subtlety of his writing to his sense of geography, intimacy, and sensuous detail, I don't know anyone who writes quite like him. These interwoven narratives of the dead and the living form a boundary-crossing work of worlding, a productive new type of critical engagement; Where the North Sea Touches Alabama is not just a remarkable book, but a fresh genre of writing.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;This is a beautiful and brilliant book. . . . The lives of Allen Shelton, Patrik Keim, Walter Benjamin, and many others intersect in these pages, rubbing up against each other, drawing on each other to evoke layers on layers of worlds in which objects, color, and texture are everything. Sheltonandrsquo;s writing is masterful.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Allen C. Shelton is a provocative writer whose prose grapples with a lot of ideas we donandrsquo;t usually allow ourselves to think about. Readers will have to think hard, but their efforts will pay off in new knowledge and insight: I felt that I knew a whole lot more after reading his book than I did before and I donandrsquo;t often feel that way, nor feel that way so strongly.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Reading this book and thinking it fiction I came, reluctantly, to see that it is not. The import of that sentiment eludes me as I continue to read this settling, unsettling book.andrdquo;
Synopsis
In rich first-person narrative, Dogtown tells the strange, dark story of a wilderness ghost town that has enthralled artists, writers, and eccentrics--and of a brutal murder committed there. Documenting its history and lore, East explores the possibility that certain landscapes wield their own unique power.
The area known as Dogtown--an isolated colonial ruin and the surrounding 3,600-acre woodland in historic seaside Gloucester, Massachusetts--has always exerted a powerful influence over artists, writers, eccentrics, and nature lovers. But its history is woven through with tales of hallucinations, pirates, ghost sightings, witches, drifters, and violence. A 1984 murder there continues to loom large in Gloucester's collective psyche: a mentally disturbed local man crushed the skull of a schoolteacher as she walked the woods.
In alternating chapters, East interlaces the story of this murder with Dogtown's bizarre history. The colonial settlement was a haven for former slaves, prostitutes, and witches until it was abandoned 180 years ago. Since then, Dogtown has inspired various people, including a millionaire who carved Protestant precepts into its boulders; the Modernist painter Marsden Hartley, whom Dogtown saved from a crippling depression; the drug-addled poet Charles Olson; a coven of witches that still holds ceremonies there today; and the murderer, who spent much of his life in Dogtown's woods.
The murder tapped a vein of thinking that has quietly endured in Gloucester for centuries: some people rallied around Dogtown protectively, but others blamed it for the tragedy.
In luminous, insightful prose, Dogtown tells an evocative tale of a community both haunted and bound together by its love of this strange, forgotten place and its denizens.
Synopsis
Dogtown is Elyssa East's exploration of the strange, dark history of a wilderness ghost town and a brutal 25-year-old murder.
Synopsis
East explores the strange, dark history of a New England ghost town and a brutal 25-year-old murder.
Synopsis
andlt;bandgt; andlt;BRandgt;In rich first-person narrative, andlt;iandgt;Dogtown andlt;/iandgt;tells the strange, dark story of a wilderness ghost town that has enthralled artists, writers, and eccentricsand#8212;and of a brutal murder committed there. Documenting its history and lore, andlt;/bandgt;Eandlt;bandgt;ast explores the possibility that certain landscapes wield their own unique power.andlt;BRandgt;andlt;/bandgt; andlt;BRandgt;The area known as Dogtownand#8212;an isolated colonial ruin and the surrounding 3,600-acre woodland in historic seaside Gloucester, Massachusettsand#8212;has always exerted a powerful influence over artists, writers, eccentrics, and nature lovers. But its history is woven through with tales of hallucinations, pirates, ghost sightings, witches, drifters, and violence. A 1984 murder there continues to loom large in Gloucesterand#8217;s collective psyche: a mentally disturbed local man crushed the skull of a schoolteacher as she walked the woods. andlt;BRandgt; andlt;BRandgt;In alternating chapters, East interlaces the story of this murder with Dogtownand#8217;s bizarre history. The colonial settlement was a haven for former slaves, prostitutes, and witches until it was abandoned 180 years ago. Since then, Dogtown has inspired various people, including a millionaire who carved Protestant precepts into its boulders; the Modernist painter Marsden Hartley, whom Dogtown saved from a crippling depression; the drug-addled poet Charles Olson; a coven of witches that still holds ceremonies there today; and the murderer, who spent much of his life in Dogtownand#8217;s woods. andlt;BRandgt; andlt;BRandgt;The murder tapped a vein of thinking that has quietly endured in Gloucester for centuries: some people rallied around Dogtown protectively, but others blamed it for the tragedy. andlt;BRandgt; andlt;BRandgt;In luminous, insightful prose, andlt;iandgt;Dogtown andlt;/iandgt;tells an evocative tale of a community both haunted and bound together by its love of this strange, forgotten place and its denizens.
Synopsis
On a warm summerandrsquo;s night in Athens, Georgia, Patrik Keim stuck a pistol into his mouth and pulled the trigger. Keim was an artist, and the room in which he died was an assemblage of the tools of his particular trade: the floor and table were covered with images, while a pair of large scissors, glue, electrical tape, and some dentures shared space with a pile of old medical journals, butcher knives, and various other small objects. Keim had cleared a space on the floor, and the wall directly behind him was bare. His body completed the tableau. Art and artists often end in tragedy and obscurity, but Keimandrsquo;s story doesnandrsquo;t end with his death.
A few years later, 180 miles away from Keimandrsquo;s grave, a bulldozer operator uncovered a pine coffin in an old beaver swamp down the road from Allen C. Sheltonandrsquo;s farm. He quickly reburied it, but Shelton, a friend of Keimandrsquo;s who had a suitcase of his unfinished projects, became convinced that his friend wasnandrsquo;t dead and fixed in the ground, but moving between this world and the next in a traveling coffin in search of his incomplete work.
In Where the North Sea Touches Alabama, Shelton ushers us into realms of fantasy, revelation, and reflection, paced with a slow unfurling of magical correspondences. Though he is trained as a sociologist, this is a genre-crossing work of literature, a two-sided ethnography: one from the world of the living and the other from the world of the dead.
What follows isnandrsquo;t a ghost story but an exciting and extraordinary kind of narrative. The psycho-sociological landscape that Shelton constructs for his reader is as evocative of Kafka, Bataille, and Benjamin as it is of Weber, Foucault, and Marx. Where the North Sea Touches Alabama is a work of sociological fictocriticism that explores not only the authorandrsquo;s relationship to the artist but his physical, historical, and social relationship to northeastern Alabama, in rare style.
About the Author
andlt;bandgt;Elyssa Eastandlt;/bandgt; received her B.A. in art history from Reed College and her M.F.A. in creative writing from Columbia Universityand#8217;s School of the Arts. She has received awards and fellowships from The Corporation of Yaddo; the Ragdale, Jerome, and Ludwig Vogelstein Foundations; Columbia University; the University of Connecticut; and the Phillipsandnbsp;Library at the Peabody Essex Museum. andlt;BRandgt;andnbsp;andlt;BRandgt; andlt;BRandgt;Elyssaand#8217;s book, andlt;i andgt;Dogtown: Death and Enchantment in a New England Ghost Townandlt;/iandgt;, interlaces murder, legend, and history in a Massachusetts ghost town. It was recently awarded the 2010 L. L. Winship/PEN New England Award for the best work of non-fiction about New England. andlt;i andgt;Dogtown andlt;/iandgt;was also named a and#8220;Must-Read Bookand#8221; by the Massachusetts Book Awards and an Editorsand#8217; Choice selection from the andlt;i andgt;New York Times Book Reviewandlt;/iandgt;. andlt;BRandgt; andlt;BRandgt;andnbsp;andlt;BRandgt; andlt;BRandgt;Elyssaand#8217;s writing has also been published in andlt;i andgt;The New York Timesandlt;/iandgt;, andlt;i andgt;The Philadelphia Inquirerandlt;/iandgt;, andlt;i andgt;The Dallas Morning Newsandlt;/iandgt;, andlt;i andgt;The Kansas City Starandlt;/iandgt;, and other publications nationwide. A scene from her opera libretto, andlt;i andgt;Mr. Hawthorneand#8217;s Engagementandlt;/iandgt;, was performed with American Opera Projectand#8217;s Composers and the Voice series. Elyssa currently teaches in the undergraduate Creative Writing program at Purchase College, State University of New York.
Table of Contents
List of Images
Acknowledgments
Preface
Where the North Sea Touches Alabama
Notes
ReferencesIndex