An Island Out of Time: A memoir of Smith Island in the Chesapeake

by Tom Horton

Paperback, 1996

Call number

975.2/23

Publication

New York : W.W. Norton, c1996.

Pages

xv; 316

Description

A classic of Chesapeake Bay literature, Tom Horton's An Island Out of Time chronicles the three years Horton and his family spent on Smith Island, a marshy archipelago in the middle of Maryland's famous estuary. The result is an intimate portrait of a deeply traditional community that lived much as their ancestors did three hundred years before, attuned to the habits of blue crab, oyster, and waterfowl. In a new afterword for this edition, Horton brings the story of Smith Island, and its people, up to the present.

Media reviews

Horton is everywhere: taking the island doctor's testimony; marvelling at the island artist's tale; attentive to micro-dialects, sacred groves; tracking the seasons' shifts. ``There is a beauty and eloquence to their lives,'' says an off-island resident. The same could be said of this book.

Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

1996

Physical description

xv, 316 p.; 9.8 inches

ISBN

0393039382 / 9780393039382
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