Lightkeepers' Menagerie: Stories of Animals at Lighthouses

by Elinor Dewire

Elinor De Wire has been writing about lighthouses and their keepers since 1972. During that time she found that hundreds of lighthouse animals wandered into her research notes and photo collection. This book is the story of all these cold-nosed, whiskered, wooly, hoofed, horned, slithery, buzzing, feathered, and finned keepers of the lights. Where else would a dog learn to ring a fogbell, a cat go swimming and catch a fish for its supper, or a parrot cuss the storm winds rattling its cage? Who other than a lightkeeper would swim a cow home, tame a baby seal, adopt an orphan alligator, send messages via carrier pigeons, or imagine mermaids coming to visit? The Lightkeepers' Menagerie gathers together animal stories from lighthouses all around the world, tales of happiness and sadness, courage and cowardice, tragedy and comedy, even absurdity. Sometimes, fur, feathers, and fins tell the best tales.

Genres: Animals, Nonfiction

342 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Elinor DeWire (born in Maryland) is an American author, freelance writer, editor, and blogger based in the Puget Sound area of Washington. She holds a B.G.S. in Liberal Arts and an M.A. in Education and teaches at Olympic College in Bremerton, Washington.

DeWire writes both fiction and nonfiction, but is best-known for her books about lighthouses and her work in lighthouse preservation and education. She has authored sixteen books on lighthouses and regularly contributes articles about lighthouses to magazines. Her author blog is about lighthouses and related nautical topics, as well as her work as a writer and speaker. She is a popular public speaker known for her entertaining programs on lighthouse history and lore. She volunteers for several nonprofit groups devoted to lighthouse preservation and education. DeWire also has a great interest in astronomy and weather and has authored numerous articles and four books on amateur astronomy and sky watching. She enjoys rural living and has written an e-book on poultry.

Two of her books have been honored with the Ben Franklin Book Award and the Coast Guard Book Award. She won a short fiction prize in 1992 from the National League of American Pen Women and has published fiction in several magazines. She has published several short videos about her books and interests on You Tube. Her newspaper and magazine columns include “Shore Almanac,” “Away from the Bay,” “Kids on the Beam,” and “Liquidized Lore.” From 1991-2000 she wrote “Lifelines” and “Whale Oil and Wicks” for the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration’s Mariners Weather Log. Currently, she is a regular contributor to Weatherwise Magazine, The Beachcomber, Lighthouse Digest, and The Keepers Log.

Find Elinor DeWire's blog at www.elinordewire.blogspot.com

Reviews

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

For the type of book this is, it's amazing and must have taken years to collect the information and stories within. The author has spent years visiting lighthouses and has owned cat for decades. Of course, cats were one species kept as pets with jobs at lighthouses. There were dogs, mules, horses, cows (for milk), chickens, geese, goats, sheep and others. Then there are the bird stories about wild birds and how they are attracted to lighthouses. There are stories of sea life, reptiles, rats, snakes, and more. The stories are told in paragraphs or pages, not separate stories as chapters. The book is organized loosely by subject or animal. It's more than you imagined to learn about lighthouses, their keepers, and animals, both pets and wild.