Islands of Boston Harbor

by Edward Rowe Snow, William Fowler (Foreword)

Snow's first book, reissued on the 100th anniversary of his birth, is packed with history and lore, from tales of the Puritans and Civil War days to legends of the supernatural.

Genres: Nautical, History

360 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1971

About the author

Edward Rowe Snow was an American author, lecturer, and historian. He spent most of his life studying the legends, lighthouses, and islands of New England. He wrote many pamphlets, books, and articles, and made lecturers and tours throughout the area with his wife.

Reviews

[Kim Zinkowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book that I read is called The Romance of Boston Bay. This title seemed the closest to describing the contents of the book that I read.

[Declan Condon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit of a drag at some points ; but overall an awesome lens for local history!

[Blakely · Rating 3 out of 5]

I saw this book at the library and grabbed it without knowing anything about it. This book covers many of the islands in the Boston Harbor, focusing on each individually and spending more time on some of the more historically important islands such as George's Island and Castle Island.

The good points:
- It's a quick read with a lot of short, interesting stories;
- By the end of the book you do have a pretty good picture of the role the harbor islands have played in history including pre-American Revolution, during the American Revolution, during the Civil Wars, WWI & WWI, and various storms and shipwrecks;
- If you're interested in one particular island it's a great way to pick it up and quickly learn about that particular island;

The bad points:
- This book could have been so much better if it had just had a few maps of the harbor islands at different points in time. Without that it was often difficult for me to visualize what I was trying to read about;
- The decision to organize the book by island instead of giving an overview of all the islands made it hard to contextualize the role of the islands during history until towards the end - obviously this was an editorial choice with both pluses and minuses;
- Too much time was spent on unimportant details like who owned what land at various points in time when nothing really important was taking place;
- If you're looking for historical context you're not going to find it here! Not familiar with the "military threats of the 1740's"? You won't learn about it in this book;
- The book was written in 1936 with some updating in the 1950s (at least the edition I read) so it doesn't include the past 60 years of history;

Still an interesting read and I'm glad I grabbed this - I definitely learned a few things!

[Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfect book for Boston based folks interested in the history and adventure in the gorgeous Boston Harbor. Snow's books repeat some stories between them, but they are filled with anecdotal tidbits that serve as reference points for Bostonians to enjoy their surrounding nautical roots.

[Ryan Silve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but freewheeling. It's hard to judge consistently whether Rowe's somewhat erratic approach is a result of the paucity of detailed sources or a symptom of a frenetic mind always looking for something else beyond the next breakwater.