What do you think?
Rate this book
Blair's Attic
Cape Cod -- Fiction
- GenresMystery
369 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1929
16 people want to read
About the author
Joseph Crosby Lincoln
162 books22 followersJoseph Crosby Lincoln (a.k.a Joseph C. Lincoln) was an American author of novels, poems, and short stories, many set in a fictionalized Cape Cod. Lincoln's work frequently appeared in popular magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post and The Delineator.
Lincoln was aware of contemporary naturalist writers, such as Frank Norris and Theodore Dreiser, who used American literature to plumb the depths of human nature, but he rejected this literary exercise. Lincoln claimed that he was satisfied "spinning yarns" that made readers feel good about themselves and their neighbors. Two of his stories have been adapted to film.
Lincoln was born in Brewster, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod, but his mother moved the family to Chelsea, Massachusetts, a manufacturing city outside of Boston, after the death of his father. Lincoln's literary career celebrating "old Cape Cod" can partly be seen as an attempt to return to an Eden from which he had been driven by family tragedy. His literary portrayal of Cape Cod can also be understood as a pre-modern haven occupied by individuals of old Yankee stock which was offered to readers as an antidote to an America that was undergoing rapid modernization, urbanization, immigration, and industrialization. Lincoln was a Republican and a Universalist.
Upon becoming successful, Lincoln spent his winters in northern New Jersey, near the center of the publishing world in Manhattan, but summered in Chatham, Massachusetts. In Chatham, he lived in a shingle-style house named "Crosstrees" that was located on a bluff overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.
Lincoln died in 1944, at the age of 73, in Winter Park, Florida.
Lincoln was aware of contemporary naturalist writers, such as Frank Norris and Theodore Dreiser, who used American literature to plumb the depths of human nature, but he rejected this literary exercise. Lincoln claimed that he was satisfied "spinning yarns" that made readers feel good about themselves and their neighbors. Two of his stories have been adapted to film.
Lincoln was born in Brewster, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod, but his mother moved the family to Chelsea, Massachusetts, a manufacturing city outside of Boston, after the death of his father. Lincoln's literary career celebrating "old Cape Cod" can partly be seen as an attempt to return to an Eden from which he had been driven by family tragedy. His literary portrayal of Cape Cod can also be understood as a pre-modern haven occupied by individuals of old Yankee stock which was offered to readers as an antidote to an America that was undergoing rapid modernization, urbanization, immigration, and industrialization. Lincoln was a Republican and a Universalist.
Upon becoming successful, Lincoln spent his winters in northern New Jersey, near the center of the publishing world in Manhattan, but summered in Chatham, Massachusetts. In Chatham, he lived in a shingle-style house named "Crosstrees" that was located on a bluff overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.
Lincoln died in 1944, at the age of 73, in Winter Park, Florida.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 5, 2018
Lots of women being adorably confused and/or laughably hysterical not to mention racial epithets thrown in; I know it was typical of its time but still...Plus it dragged on as everyone took care to state the obvious ad nauseum. Not my favorite by any stretch.
May 31, 2025
Another great book by Joseph Lincoln, this time assisted by his son Freeman, as co-author. Published in 1929, it is a product of its time. There are all the hallmarks of a Lincoln story, humor, homespun common sense, men and women in traditional roles, colloquialisms native to the time and place, and yes there are racial terms and language that were in most of the literature of this time period. Many modern readers of period literature enjoy projecting modern social rules and mores upon period literature and then are outraged when they come across language and themes that by today's standards are inappropriate. Joe Lincoln's books are not high literature, nor do they pretend to be. They are entertaining stories for common people before the age of television.
October 11, 2014
Four different narrators carry this mystery from the 1880s to the 1920s and ultimately solve the case. There's murder, madness, hidden treasure and possible hauntings!
http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/...
http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/...
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews