Beautiful Swimmers: Watermen, Crabs and the Chesapeake Bay

Beautiful Swimmers: Watermen, Crabs and the Chesapeake Bay
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A LIFE CHANGING READ

Attention to Detail

Beautiful Swimmers

Entertaining and Educational

It Takes You There....

Beautiful Swimmers: Watermen, Crabs and the Chesapeake Bay
William W. Warner , John Barth , and Author
Manufacturer: Back Bay Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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All About Blue Crabs: And How to Catch Them

ASIN: 0316923354

Customer Reviews:

A LIFE CHANGING READ.......2007-05-29

Growing up in Northern Virginia I always had a vague sense of the crab's popularity, both for dining and as a sort of a local mascot for people who live near the Bay. However, I had only eaten them at my aunt's house in Benedict, MD. and thought them to be strange and hard to eat. They made me feel inferior some how not knowing the technique and how exactly my aunt was able to come up with these bushels during the warm summer months. I dedicated last summer to learning all about the Bay and the blue crab and the wonderful people who make a living off them. I was transformed with the knowledge from the book that explains so many details about the life of the crab, the watermen and their families. The author is so creative with the insights he reveals. After reading this book, I am equipped to speak intelligently about the geographical areas, crab industry and most importantly-how to get and eat these beautiful swimmers!

Attention to Detail.......2006-06-03

Whereas I found this book to be quite informative, the author's attention to detail about every aspect and apparatus of a waterman's life on the Cheasapeake Bay to be a bit much. I found it difficult to find interest in how many eel baits were used on a trotline and how close together they were spaced. Not being well versed on the parts of various fishing vessels, I found myself lost as to what the author was writing about not to mention the numerous detailed descriptions of every piece of fishing apparatus employed by watermen.

Beautiful Swimmers.......2005-08-18

Beautiful Swimmers was given to me by a relative mixed in with a number of Bay-related books(including Tom Horton's Island Out of Time and several others).
Often, environmental writers stand the risk of in a way reducing the Bay to merely some sort of ecological experiment. Some I have read do not take into account that every little change in the Bay, whether the fault of Mother Nature or ourselves, drastically affects the people whose entire livelihood is fished out of these waters. Fortunately, the author(s) of Beautiful Swimmers does not fall into that trap.
The Watermen have a unique love affair with the Blue Crab. As evidenced by my own home town's "Hard Crab Derby" celebration ever year. This book, I think, gives a very fair and honest portrayal of these seemingly simple people with seemingly simple lives. Its handling of carcinological matters is anything but boring, including an in-detail description of how the crabs make love.
I would highly suggest this work not only for its informative value but for its treatment of the inherant poetry and beauty of the Bay. Even at the time of its publishing, the downward trend in the Bay's health was growing more evident. Today the situation is even more precarious, and requires a very delicate balance between the health of the Bay that supports so many and the people themselves, whose lives have been spent gleaning from these once bountiful waters an income, and who keep alive the traditions of Watermen from over four centuries ago.
Let us protect the Bay, this precious resource of ours, but we must not forget about the people.

Once again, an exceptional book, and one that I recommend for anyone interested in the Conservation of the Chesapeake Bay and the people that depend upon it.

Entertaining and Educational.......2005-01-03

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I spent summers as a kid catching crabs and seeing commercial crabbers outside my grandparents' home but there was a lot about the industry and the bay that I didn't know. I felt like an eavesdropper on an unfamiliar yet familiar world as I read this book, and found my curiousity awakened. The writers clear appreciation for his subject shines through, and it is a delight to discover even many years after it was written.

It Takes You There...........2004-11-16

Beautiful Swimmers will make you feel like you are a part of growing up in the Chesapeake Bay region. If you already did so, it will bring you back home.

Beautiful Swimmers serves as excellent literature for a multitude of readers: naturalists, historians, travellers, and folks who enjoy reading a good novel. It also provides a good blend of natural and cultural resource history.

I moved to the Chesapeake Bay area (Deale, MD) several years ago and was referred to Beautiful Swimmers by several members of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Prior to reading Beautiful Swimmers, I grew extremely fond of living on the bay. Since reading the book, I have that much more appreciation for the culture of the bay.

Bringing Back the Bay: The Chesapeake in the Photographs of Marion Warren and the Voices of Its People

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Bringing Back the Bay: The Chesapeake in the Photographs of Marion Warren and the Voices of Its People
Marion E. Warren
Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Review of Water's Way

Water's Way: Life along the Chesapeake
Tom Horton
Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Beautiful Swimmers: Watermen, Crabs and the Chesapeake Bay

ASIN: 0801864267

Book Description

Those who know and love the Chesapeake will find the bay they treasure on the pages of Water's Way: Life along the Chesapeake. The story of one of North America's most fascinating regions unfolds through the sensitive photographs and prose of two men who have studied the Chesapeake all their lives. Photographer David W. Harp and writer Tom Horton vividly portray how, as Horton writes, "the edges where land and water meet charm us all, from watermen to watercolorists and beachcombers to duck hunters."

Water's Way will guide you to "those rare, hidden nooks of the bay country where nature still appears as glorious and untrammeled as it did a thousand years ago." It will also take you to less hidden, but equally intriguing sites within the Chesapeake's reach as Harp and Horton depict the worlds of both nature and humans.

An intimate knowledge of and an unwavering reverence for the bay pervade Water's Way. Harp and Horton are as attuned to the romance that still clings to the Chesapeake as they are to the realities that inspire and threaten it. In a time when the region faces tremendous changes and challenges, Water's Way is neither strident nor sentimental. Rather, it is suffused with the fundamental respect for the bay which Harp and Horton see as key to its survival.

"Dave Harp's photography and Tom Horton's text are nothing short of inspirational. Through the combination of each man's art, Water's Way communicates the beauty and essence of the Chesapeake like no other book. It conveys the very reasons why I have dedicated my life's work to saving the bay."--William Baker, President, Chesapeake Bay Foundation

"Three forces have been hard at work in the making of this exquisite piece: the gentle and informed eye of Dave's camera, Tom's inspirited love affair with our language, and the mystery they conspire in, creating a vivid picture and genuine portrait of a life that is greater than ourselves."--Tom Wisner, author of Chesapeake Born

"Harp's photographs, gorgeously reproduced here... have, I think, finally surpassed the late Aubrey Bodine's famously romantic shots of the Chesapeake."--John Goodspeed, Easton Star-Democrat

"Tom Horton has a poet's touch and a realist's frankness as he writes of the delicate ecology of this great aquatic system in chapters whose subjects range from the role of marshes to the life of the watermen to the growing pressures of urban development... This book is a singing tribute to the bay."--Islands Magazine

Customer Reviews:

Review of Water's Way.......2000-08-12

Water's Way is a stunningly photographed, and exquisitely written glimpse of life in the Chesapeake region. The book celebrates beauty, both in the natural and human worlds. Author Tom Horton's essays are insightful, humorous, and well-crafted. His words flow like the many creeks and rivers that he describes on the Delmarva peninsula. Dave Harp's photography defines the people, animals, and landscape in such concert with Horton's words that the book should be considered the National Geographic of the Eastern Shore. This a worthy addition to anyone's coffee table.

Mistress of Riversdale: The Plantation Letters of Rosalie Stier Calvert, 1795-1821 (Maryland Paperback Bookshelf)

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Excellent letters give intimate look at Federal-period woman
Story of an extraordinary woman in early 19th century U.S.

Mistress of Riversdale: The Plantation Letters of Rosalie Stier Calvert, 1795-1821 (Maryland Paperback Bookshelf)
Margaret Law Callcott
Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0801843995

Customer Reviews:

Excellent letters give intimate look at Federal-period woman.......1999-07-09

In 1794, when Rosalie Stier was 16, her Belgian family fled the Terror and came to America. When her family returned to Europe after her marriage, she wrote direct, intimate letters--over 230!-- covering all aspects of her domestic circle, her house and garden, politics, and society.

She pulls no punches: she hated "Tommy Jeff" and "Queen Dolla lolla" Madison; thought American might benefit from a king; made major investment decisions for her family; described the "rockets' red glare," (glimpsed from her bedroom window); and oversaw her daughter Caroline's debut into society.

An inspiring figure from this often-overlooked period, she gives the lie to those who believe that plantation mistresses-or housewives-did nothing but take care of a house. Her letters give the true picture of the all-consuming details: addressing business cares (she taught herself bookkeeping), educating her nine children; looking after her many servants and slaves; and (despite the household) surviving her isolation.

Her letters were discovered in the 1970s, when her family's centuries-old manuscript collection was cataloged. Rosalie's voice, buried for almost two centuries, is heard again.

Story of an extraordinary woman in early 19th century U.S........1998-08-23

This book is the letters of Rosalie Stier Calvert, mistress of a manor house in Maryland in the early 19th century. She was an emigre from Antwerp who eventually came to feel herself American. She married into one of the first families in Maryland. In addition to running her household and bearing 9 children, she handled her father's and brother's not inconsiderable investments. In her letters home, Rosalie made interesting observations on the politics and social scene of the day, as well as telling her family about her day-to-day life. Rosalie almost comes alive in the pages of this book.

Average customer rating:

An inclusive reference, very well done

FISHES OF CHESAPEAKE BAY PB
Murdy Eo
Manufacturer: Smithsonian
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1588340457

Customer Reviews:

An inclusive reference, very well done.......1998-02-25

This is a quite inclusive book of Chesapeake Bay fish. Many Atlantic species that stray into the mouth of the Bay are also included. Excellent scientific drawings, many color plates, good concise text. It is geared towards reference (not a Sunday read). Very well done.

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The awesome beauty of small things.

Life in the Chesapeake Bay
Alice Jane Lippson , and Robert L. Lippson
Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
ProductGroup: Book
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ASIN: 0801883385

Book Description

Life in the Chesapeake Bay is the most important book ever published on America's largest estuary. Since publication of the first edition in 1984, tens of thousands of naturalists, boaters, fishermen, and conservationists have relied on the book's descriptions of the Bay's plants, animals, and diverse habitats. Superbly illustrated and clearly written, this acclaimed guide describes hundreds of plants and animals and their habitats, from diamondback terrapins to blue crabs to hornshell snails.

Now in its third edition, the book has been updated with a new gallery of thirty-nine color photographs and dozens of new species descriptions and illustrations. The new edition retains the charm of an engaging classic while adding a decade of new research.

This classic guide to the plants and animals of the Chesapeake Bay will appeal to a variety of readers -- year-round residents and summer vacationers, professional biologists and amateur scientists, conservationists and sportsmen.

Customer Reviews:

The awesome beauty of small things........2000-01-18

Expanded revision of the 1984 Guide. I live in New Jersey & this wonderful book is one of the best teachers for my home waters.

"Life in Chesapeake Bay" is organized to take the reader from an overview of bay ecology, across the sand beaches, around the piers & pilings, into the intertidal zone, through shallow waters, marshes & then out toward deeper waters. Illustrations are clear line drawings. The scholarship never leaves the reader gasping for air. There's a highly informative glossary & species list.

"Life in Chesapeake Bay" makes a strong pro-environmental statement by showing us the diversity, poetry & interconnectedness of life (including humans) at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, as well as the fragility of this great inter-weaving of water, tide, sand & mud. It teaches us the awesome beauty of small things that exist right in front of out eyes.

Bob Rixon

Dancing on the Sand: A Story of an Atlantic Blue Crab (Soundprints, Smithsonian Wildlife)

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dancing on the sand - a story of an atlantic blue crab
Dancingon the Sand: A Story of an Atlantic Blue Crab

Dancing on the Sand: A Story of an Atlantic Blue Crab (Soundprints, Smithsonian Wildlife)
Kathleen M. Hollenbeck
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Customer Reviews:

dancing on the sand - a story of an atlantic blue crab.......2001-12-28

i am disappointed with this book as it was meant for my 5 year old and it has WAY too much MATING content in it than i care to discuss with him right now. out of 31 pages, there are 14 pages with word content, and of these, 5 pages deal with the mating subject. too bad, as this is a fairly informative book with fairly nice illustrations. i am in the process of returning it to amazon. i guess this is the disadvantage of shopping on line.

Dancingon the Sand: A Story of an Atlantic Blue Crab.......2000-06-14

This book was interesting to read. I'm going to Marine bio camp and it helped me alot. It told me alot of things i didn't know. I would highly recomend it.

Inside the Great House: Planter Family Life in Eighteenth-Century Chesapeake Society

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Inside the Great House: Planter Family Life in Eighteenth-Century Chesapeake Society
Daniel Blake Smith
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Slave Counterpoint: Black Culture in the Eighteenth-Century Chesapeake and Lowcountry (Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia)

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superior analysis with an exhausting amount of information
Excellent.
A Review of Slave Counterpoint
Excellent Read
superb

Slave Counterpoint: Black Culture in the Eighteenth-Century Chesapeake and Lowcountry (Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia)
Philip D. Morgan
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
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ASIN: 0807847178
Release Date: 1998-03-18

Amazon.com

South Carolina in the 18th century was a colony that had been built on the back of slave labor. By contrast, Virginia only began to "recruit" slaves in large numbers at the beginning of that century. Consequently, although there were some similarities in the black cultures that emerged in the two regions, there were also substantial differences. Philip D. Morgan, a history professor at William and Mary, has produced an intricately detailed comparison of the Lowcountry and Chesapeake cultures that tells us much about the way of life of some of the earliest African Americans.

Looking at everything from the types of work the slaves performed to the houses in which they lived to the food they ate, Morgan reveals the patterned differences between the two slave societies; all slaves were exploited, but not all slaves were exploited alike. He also shows the differences within the societies; the slave experience would be much different for somebody who arrived directly from Africa than it would be for somebody who'd first spent time in the West Indies.

There are even some surprises: relations between the races in early Virginia, for example, were rather flexible, as black slaves came into regular contact with white indentured servants, and as Morgan writes, "the level of exploitation each group suffered inclined them to see the others as sharing their predicament." Furthermore, although there was sexual exploitation of black female slaves by their white masters, there was also a significant amount of consensual interracial sex, among white women and black men as well as white men and black women. That would change as the use of indentured servants declined while large quantities of slaves were imported directly from Africa and as various initiatives were launched by authorities to promote the social separation of the races. Chronicling the visible results of these and other phenomena in straightforward prose that is precise when possible and admits ambiguity when necessary, Morgan makes a crucial element of early American history far less remote to the modern reader.

Book Description

On the eve of the American Revolution, nearly three-quarters of all African Americans in mainland British America lived in two regions: the Chesapeake, centered in Virginia, and the Lowcountry, with its hub in South Carolina. Here, Philip Morgan compares and contrasts African American life in these two regional black cultures, exploring the differences as well as the similarities. The result is a detailed and comprehensive view of slave life in the colonial American South.

Morgan explores the role of land and labor in shaping culture, the everyday contacts of masters and slaves that defined the possibilities and limitations of cultural exchange, and finally the interior lives of blacks—their social relations, their family and kin ties, and the major symbolic dimensions of life: language, play, and religion. He provides a balanced appreciation for the oppressiveness of bondage and for the ability of slaves to shape their lives, showing that, whatever the constraints, slaves contributed to the making of their history. Victims of a brutal, dehumanizing system, slaves nevertheless strove to create order in their lives, to preserve their humanity, to achieve dignity, and to sustain dreams of a better future.

Customer Reviews:

superior analysis with an exhausting amount of information.......2005-11-05

Morgan's analysis will give anyone who wants to know more about slavery an immense amount of material. Comparing the Chesapeake and Lowcountry areas of the American colonies during the eighteenth century, Morgan discusses the economic and cultural sides of the different slave institutions and discusses black-white encounters. No matter how one may try to define slavery in one, distinct way, Morgan shows there is always an exception to that definition. I know Morgan worked for many years to produce this book and that this book is the culmination of an immense amount of research and analysis, but this book would make a larger impact if it was shorter. By the time I was done reading this mammoth book, I had a hard time remembering all the topics he brought up. For any history student, like me, it is worth reading, but make sure you give yourself plenty of time to understand it.

Excellent........2005-03-07

Philip D. Morgan's exhaustively researched and extremely detailed text seeks to compare and contrast the social structure and overall formation of the slave systems of the Chesapeake, VA and Lowcountry, SC regions during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Morgan does not adopt a narrative approach: he offers numerous discussions-all of which are deftly integrated into his descriptive analyses-of how black cultures changed over time. Morgan spends the 700-odd pages eschewing monolithic portrayals of black culture at almost every opportunity, preferring to investigate complexity and contradiction rather than to resort to pithy judgment. This is an excellent, important read.

A Review of Slave Counterpoint.......2002-12-18

I had the pleasure of listening to this author lecture to in class during my senior year of college. Having the opportunity to discuss this book with the author made Slave Counterpoint come to life. Slave Counterpoint makes the topic of Antebellum slavery captivating for those interested in learning about the early days of slavery in the Cheasapeake Bay region. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who has a sharp curiosity about early colonial history and wishes to be engaged in an honest account of events(I would recommend reading this book a couple of chapeter at a time).

Excellent Read.......2001-10-01

I had to read this book for my History of Slavery class, thought by the author. Dr. Morgan gave excellent insight in addition to his book. I would suggust this book to anyone for anytype of reading, pleasure and required.

superb.......1999-10-26

I have read no better detailed study than this book. Long but worth it due to the rich detail.

A Day on the Bay: Postcard Views of the Chesapeake

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A Day on the Bay: Postcard Views of the Chesapeake
Bert Smith , and Anthea Smith
Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0801868572

Book Description

A delightful companion to the popular postcards books Greetings from Baltimore and Down the Ocean, A Day on the Bay captures the color and charm of Chesapeake beach resorts, the legendary steamships that served them, and the beauty and recreation that give the "Land of Pleasant Living" its identity. Here are the Emma Giles and the Bay Belle, generations apart, steaming to Tolchester and Betterton beaches; the elegant City of Norfolk departing Baltimore harbor for the overnight trip to Newport News; sailboats plying the waters of the lower Bay, midshipmen parading in Annapolis, and amusement piers at Chesapeake Beach and Ocean View teeming with revelers.

Accompanied by Bert and Anthea Smith's engaging account of Chesapeake life and lore, the postcards document places and experiences that have all but faded into history yet remain fond and vivid memories for generations of residents and visitors. As in the previous books, the Smiths have chosen postcards for aesthetic as well as historic interest. Some are individually hand colored, and many display photographic tricks or unique design elements -- making them far more evocative than mere snapshots. From the Susquehanna Flats to Capes Charles and Henry, A Day on the Bay preserves a wealth of Chesapeake history in beautiful and colorful detail.

Praise for Down the Ocean:

"A nostalgic vintage Technicolor postcard trip to the fabled ocean resorts of Maryland and Delaware and summers past... Smith has included in his wonderful retrospective a number of postcard whimsies, such as a nighttime view of the Ocean City boardwalk from the Coast Guard station."--Frederick N. Rasmussen, Baltimore Sun

Praise for Greetings from Baltimore:"Reproductions of hand-tinted cards and a witty companion text wrap Baltimore history and postcard-art history into a series of engaging vignettes." -- Baltimore Magazine

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