Reflections on Martha's Vineyard - Softcover

A newspaperman from the age of fifteen, William A. Caldwell worked for The Record of northern New Jersey for forty years as a reporter and editor. His daily column, Simeon Stylites, won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1971. In his younger years he played semi-pro football, taught himself the organ well enough to play for his church, and though he never finished high school after the death of his father, mastered Shakespeare, Ruskin, and Tennyson among scores of other authors. With his wife Dorothy, Bill Caldwell retired technically to their summer home on Martha s Vineyard in 1972. But for the next thirteen years, from a garret that looked across Katama Bay, he wrote a column for the Vineyard Gazette called Reflections of That Man Friday. In this weekly essay, Caldwell marveled with the awe and delight of a perpetual newcomer over what makes the Vineyard exceptional the offshore qualities of its inhabitants, weather, wildlife, food, seasons and predicaments. The essays for this 2015 book were edited by Tom Dunlop, the author of three other books. He is a contributing writer to Martha's Vineyard Magazine and works on special projects, including the Historic Movies of Martha's Vineyard project, for the Vineyard Gazette. He has known and loved the Vineyard essays of William A. Caldwell since his own boyhood on the Island.