The House on Nauset Marsh

by Wyman Richardson, Henry Bugbee Kane (Illustrator)

A physician and writer, naturalist and ornithologist, Dr. Wyman Richardson spent many years of his life on Cape Cod. His HOUSE ON NAUSET MARSH, first published in 1947, is one of the great classic of Cape Cod literature and a fine piece of nature writing--a lyrical, keenly observed portrait of a much loved land and its inhabitants. 45 line drawings. 224 pp.

Genres: Nature, Memoir, Nonfiction, Travel, Environment, Biography

223 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1947

About the author

Richardson was a medical doctor, and also wrote essays for Atlantic Monthly.

Reviews

[Jim Fonseca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another naturalist book set on Cape Cod! I recently read and reviewed The Outermost House by Henry Beston in 1928. (Both gifts from my sister, thank you!) This current book was written in 1947 by a Harvard medical professor who spent many seasons with his family near Eastham almost in the same area as Beston’s house. Imagine Richardson’s father and uncle buying 30 acres of property on Cape Cod in 1892 for $600! Worth millions now, and like Beston’s property, it is now part of the Cape Cod National Seashore.



One of the main differences in the two stories is the “we” of the book I am reviewing now. Beston was mainly solitary whereas Richardson is never alone. His family owned the small house as a boy so he hunted and fished here all his life, always in the company of his parents, visitors, his wife, and later kids. His house is primitive in the sense that there is an outhouse, a handpump for well water, a coal stove for heat and a wood stove for cooking. Nearby is his uncle’s modern house with full plumbing and electricity and the author loves to tell us that when there is power outage, guess whose house fills up with those looking for comfort?

Rather than a primary focus on birds as in Beston, Richardson is more into fish, fishing times, boat-handling techniques, fishing and bait techniques, and even recipes. The whole family is also hunters, gunning birds and ducks for food. They canoe and ice skate in winter.



Words in chapter titles give a good outline about many of the topics: crabbing, eelgrass, crickets, fog, tide, ice, gyrfalcon and owl. There’s a lot about storms and directions they come from, especially nor’easters and the disastrous 1938 New England hurricane.



Although the author does not claim expertise as an animal scientist, he gives us three chapters of speculation and even references to scientific studies about how birds and fish maneuver in flocks, how birds communicate with sounds, and what mechanisms they might use to navigate long distances.



A great, calming read. It makes you want to stop by for the bacon, eggs and coffee and spend a “do-nothing day” with the family.

Along with Beston’s book and Thoreau’s Cape Cod (1865), the fourth Cape Cod classic is John Hay’s The Great Beach (1964).

Top photo, the house by Christopher Seufert on flickr.com
Along Nauset Marsh Trail from npplan.com
Map of Nauset Mash Trail from capecodhealth.og
Satellite image of Cape Cod from earthshots.usgs.gov/earthshots

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautifully observed memoir and meditation on the natural world around Cape Cod, on the creatures and living beings that inhabit that place at that time. Some descriptions--like of crows afraid of a gyrfalcon--I will never forget. This is a very personal and affecting work. The author has clearly had his eyes open his entire life, and here we find the distillation of all that deep knowledge. This is a book to savor.

[Eliza · Rating 4 out of 5]

7/7/2013: This is a quiet, gentle, and joyful set of musings on life in and around the Farm House, as Richardson calls it, in the 1930s and 40s. An amateur naturalist (in real life he was a Boston doctor), fisherman and hunter, he ponders in a playful and humble way such questions as how animals find their way home, how many ways birds have of talking, and how to explain tides. And he describes his and his family's activities--bass fishing, crabbing, and duck hunting--and my favorite: "Do-Nothing Day". (What in the Anderson family is called The 8 Day!)

Many times as I was reading this little volume I felt almost embarrassed--why am I reading this?! Objectively, the essays are boring and old-fashioned--the literary equivalent of sitting and listening to an older uncle natter on, reminiscing about things you have no knowledge of or interest in. (Your mind wanders to what is for dinner, or whether you need to buy new running shoes, or at worst how to get out of your conversation.) I had a hard time explaining to myself and others why I persisted--except that I was reading it for a book club, so I felt that I should finish it.

But then I started to feel the slow magic of Richardson's happiness. He so clearly loves this home and his place in it, and his enthusiastic, gentle manner worked on me, reminding me to Be Here Now (as we are told so often and I have a hard time remembering). A sort of Zen calm arrived with each new essay, as he exhorted me to come visit him at The Farm House, explaining which month is best for each activity, exclaiming about weather and warm fires and good food and summer evenings on the porch, watching the sunset….well, you get the idea. He writes as if there is nothing more important than enjoying nature and family and the good things life offers if one is paying attention. Not sanctimonious or pompous or self-conscious. It turns out, then, that old-fashioned earnest delight is refreshing, and comforting, and charming, and I'm a big fan. I wish he were still there, waiting for me to visit…I'd be on his doorstep tomorrow!

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

For many readers, The House on Nauset Marsh embodies a "golden age" of Cape Cod, a vanished era when tourists and "summer people" had established themselves as an integral part of the Cape's yearly ritu-al, but had not yet overwhelmed the landscape or fragmented the local culture. It describes a time when we had not yet ringed our ponds and studded our beach bluffs and wooded ridges with absurdly large McMansions, those presumptuous monuments to our egos and wealth whose septic effluvia and landscaping runoffs pollute our waters and tidal flats. We did not yet flock by the millions to overwhelm this narrow and fragile peninsula with our vehicles and our desire for speed.
We did not yet demand an urban density of entertainments and distractions-malls, cineplexes, factory outlets, fantasy mini-golf courses, whale-watching trips, super-supermarkets, and commercialized "local festivals" —in order to make us feel that our oversized houses and overpriced vacation rentals were worth it. By contrast, Richardson‘s book makes us feel that time here was slow and endless, and that daily happiness was close at hand and absolutely free.
Introduction by
Robert Finch
2005

I have the great pleasure to live in Eastham where the House on Nauset Marsh is. I can attest that 77 years after this book was written there still exists an unspoiled land where you can experience nature at its finest. The beaches are just as magnificent and although the birds and wildlife are not as plentiful they still coexist with the human inhabitants.

This is my second favorite Cape Cod memoir (Henry Beston being my first) and it was a very enjoyable read (despite the lengthy chapter on Roccus Lineatus, AKA Striped Bass). Richardson writes with such joy about his favorite activities (fishing and duck hunting) and makes an outing in the cold December as well as the March doldrums seem fun.

[Karen Floyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a compilation of essays originally written for The Atlantic Monthly in the 1940's and very early '50's. Richardson's father and uncle bought a farmhouse on Cape Cod in the 1890's, which is still in the family today. His essays range back and forth in time from his boyhood to his being a father of grown children. Richardson was a keen observer, telling us about, among other things, birds, wind and tide. He speculates about bird intelligence and migration. He lived on Cape Cod long enough to observe the way species of plants and animals vanished and returned over several decades, and to understand why this happened. His stories are entertaining, his observations of nature, marsh, beach and sea are deeply knowledgable and respectful, and his writing is beautifully lyrical. Someday I would like to see these places for myself, though I fear they may have changed out of all recognition over the past 60+ years. Perhaps not, as the land is now part of the Cape Cod National Seashore.

[Emma VH · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Richardson spins a gentle narrative that transports you to the salty, ever-changing, environs of Eastham and the Nauset Marsh. I’ve been coming to this part of the Cape for many years and relished his descriptions of the creatures, the weather, the currents, the tide, etc. It resonates and makes the heart sing. This novel paints a beautiful picture of the Cape and the day-to-day endeavors of his family and their farm house.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent memoir!! Set on Cape Cod, Dr. Wyman Richardson leaves his busy life in Boston, and returns to the beauty of nature, and of his precious home on Nauset Marsh. Everything here is highly valued-- looking at his observances of dense fog, deep thoughts, bird tweeting, and a mild wind with a sweet breeze. Little could escape Wyman Richardson's gaze in his activities and the reflecting on the shifting moods of land and sea, the denizens of salt marshes and woods, and the personalities and stories of the Cape Codders of a gentler time. I truly enjoyed it immensely.

[LINDA · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book at Cape Cod during a summer vacation. It was a good example of literature from someone living in the moment. Through his connection to nature he describes nature's cycles and his interaction with the birds, fish, ocean, and marsh.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Few books make me smile each time I pick it up! Gentle, descriptive prose about climate, flora and fauna in Eastham, MA on Cape Cod. I enjoy the narrator's voice: he excels in observation and judgment with neither overbearance nor slightest hint of dogmatism. Lovely.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's hard for me to separate my feelings for places from things written about places at times. This may be one of those. Outer Most House being another one. They were both written long enough ago that much has changed... But a lot of it hasn't changed. My family has camped in the area and when we are there, we hike. We hike in some of the same places that are written about. It took me a while to read this in part because I kept stopping to pull trail maps out to match what he was writing about with places I was pretty sure I'd walked too. After I finished the book (about 30 minutes ago), I looked up the house. I know the house. I've walked past it more times than I can count. This book is a little like visiting again. This area of the world is where my heart feels it belongs. I don't know that it would have much meaning for someone who didn't love the place as much as I do.

[Menion · Rating 4 out of 5]

pretty kick-ass stuff, and I have to give it the edge over THE OUTERMOST HOUSE, since this one is written in a bit more of a down to earth fashion. This helps explain why doing 'nothing' can sometimes be the most productive thing you can do, something the world would do well to learn, ESPECIALLY people in New England, where everything is always rush rush rush. What's the big damn hurry with everybody? Some of the best stuff in the book was talking about trying to get boats out through heavy surf, and back in through the same surf. It's not as easy as you think, ever seen Tom Hanks in CAST AWAY trying to get out to open sea? You get the picture. There are a lot of good parts about bird observations, the author is big on watching the avian population and their patterns.

[Celeste Barr · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've never read a book about a place that the author so loved and cherished. Part of why I love this book so much is because it describes a place that also gives me great peace and joy and holds one of my favorite views in the world. The spot that I describe as my favorite view is likely similar to views described by Richardson a long time ago. That slice of view is so beloved by me because it does not show alteration by man, only changes by nature : wind, sea, sand, plants.
Richardson's prose is lyrical and humorous. His full-on embracement of nature was impressive.

[Samantha C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ended the last week of the year with this gem! Really enjoyed it and kept thinking how amazing it would be to have a place to escape the chaos of everyday life where you weren't constantly tethered to a plug or cord attached to the end of an electronic device. You know, how people and society used to live our lives in much simpler and easier times, not really that long ago, like detailed in this book?!

[Fay · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a memoir written 50 years ago. It was a pleasant read, providing lots of descriptions of flora and fauna as the author and his family took long walks along the beach and dunes near his farmhouse home. A great deal of the time spent there was fishing time .... trolling in a boat or casting off the beach ... and I must say, I was introduced to more information about fishing than I thought I needed to know!

[Michele Statile · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

*4.5

[Marilyn]

Find large map of the Cape and mark books I’ve found, read, written and are hunting for.

[Robert Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great memoir of a self taught naturalist. Books from this era where many people regardless of their career were dedicated outdoorsman.

[AnnaK · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful book, describing a relation between a human being and nature.

Also the 'do nothing day' is permanently integrated in my life.

[Victor Bieniek Jr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wyman Richardson shows us how connection to the land is possible. His stories and reflections on the nature of Cape Cod are priceless.

[Deb Mohr · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely book that should be among the classics, beside Audubon. If you live birds and/or the south east coast marshes, give this a try. #1500

[Jennifer Revill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Narrative seemed stale and old-fashioned. This book was not for me.

[Scargosun · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book I can pick up and start to read and it's like coming home. It is a memior of sorts about the times of one Wyman Richardson and his time spent on Cape Cod, mostly in the house on Nauset Marsh.
It was published in 1947, a simpler time when cooking on a wood stove was a daily occurance, crabbing was an event and a long canoe trip "around the horn" was a wonderful excursion. Wyman Richardson was a physician at Harvard and the Cape was his refuge. Although it was away from the school of medicine and offices and busy everyday life, it was here that he learned about language, direction and life in general. When he wrote about his thoughts, it seemed that his mind was always uncluttered when he was at the Cape. Talking about the gyrfalcon and his comings and goings, seems more exciting than seeing something famous in the theatre.