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Winter Harbor
First Edition. Hardcover. Book Fair. Jacket Fair.
211 pages
First published January 1, 1943
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
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July 13, 2025No stars for this, just one big ♥️. Bernice and I absolutely share the same excitement about lighthouses and the feelings they evoke. I had the pleasure to see the Wintor Harbor light with my own eyes about a month ago up in Maine, and this was a lovely walk through what it was like to maintain a lighthouse in the 30’s/40’s. Here’s all the quotes I loved along the way:
“Lighthouses symbolize many things of growing importance to me: service, guidance, romance, adventure, order, solitude, and security in the teeth of a storm” (p 21).
“It was wonderful seeing the point of the island from the sea. Someone once told me that when the Lord got around to making Maine He had a lot of rocks left over and dumped them all on our coast. But He must’ve had a pattern in mind when He made the point of Mark, for running from the southwest to the northwest across the pink rock is a lovely band of gray. The rising point broadens to the grass line, and then the government did the rest. They put the right-sized tower in the right spot and let the house grow in steps up into the sky” (p 34).
“ The tide was low and we could walk across the bar to our own island. Calling Ned’s north shore a beach is a great exaggeration. It’s a collection of rocks, varying in size from beets to pumpkins, and they have been rolled to a smoothness that defies walking. All the shores around were exposing their bare black roots. When there is a very low tide, I always have a feeling I shouldn’t look too closely, that I have no right to pry into the secrets of our lovely shores. The phrase in our deed came to my mind, ‘Mark Island, four acres more or less.’ Today it was more, much more” (p 42-43).
“At four in the morning we were awakened by a crashing sea. It seemed almost to be in the room with us. For the first time I had that between-me-and-the-sea-is-eternity feeling that exists on an island. A poet has sung that once you have slept on an island, you'll never be the same again.
From the sound of the sea below the window, I almost expected to feel the spray on my face as I lay in bed. I saw then and there that we would have to plan our life around the weather, submerge our wills to the will of the elements. The idea appealed to me. The wind around the corner of the house had a winter whine, and the sea breaking along the shore sounded as though it were tearing sheets. Rising on my elbow, I could see through the darkness how the white foam lighted up the water off the shore” (p 55).
“I love to think how [lighthouses] are placed at the most beautiful and dangerous points all over the world” (p 208-9).
“Lighthouses symbolize many things of growing importance to me: service, guidance, romance, adventure, order, solitude, and security in the teeth of a storm” (p 21).
“It was wonderful seeing the point of the island from the sea. Someone once told me that when the Lord got around to making Maine He had a lot of rocks left over and dumped them all on our coast. But He must’ve had a pattern in mind when He made the point of Mark, for running from the southwest to the northwest across the pink rock is a lovely band of gray. The rising point broadens to the grass line, and then the government did the rest. They put the right-sized tower in the right spot and let the house grow in steps up into the sky” (p 34).
“ The tide was low and we could walk across the bar to our own island. Calling Ned’s north shore a beach is a great exaggeration. It’s a collection of rocks, varying in size from beets to pumpkins, and they have been rolled to a smoothness that defies walking. All the shores around were exposing their bare black roots. When there is a very low tide, I always have a feeling I shouldn’t look too closely, that I have no right to pry into the secrets of our lovely shores. The phrase in our deed came to my mind, ‘Mark Island, four acres more or less.’ Today it was more, much more” (p 42-43).
“At four in the morning we were awakened by a crashing sea. It seemed almost to be in the room with us. For the first time I had that between-me-and-the-sea-is-eternity feeling that exists on an island. A poet has sung that once you have slept on an island, you'll never be the same again.
From the sound of the sea below the window, I almost expected to feel the spray on my face as I lay in bed. I saw then and there that we would have to plan our life around the weather, submerge our wills to the will of the elements. The idea appealed to me. The wind around the corner of the house had a winter whine, and the sea breaking along the shore sounded as though it were tearing sheets. Rising on my elbow, I could see through the darkness how the white foam lighted up the water off the shore” (p 55).
“I love to think how [lighthouses] are placed at the most beautiful and dangerous points all over the world” (p 208-9).
January 23, 2026
5 ❣️❣️❣️❣️❣️ instead of stars. I heard about this book while visiting Acadia National Park from our boat tour guide, Carl. It is the story of Bernice and her husband and many visitors living on the island of Winter Harbor for three years. My son searched and found a copy, and I so enjoyed reading her daily journal, about the neighbors and visitors, & all about the lighthouse and the sea. Beautiful, peaceful,simple story. Very well done!
May 8, 2022
Memoirs are a distinct genre (or sub-genre of NF) and have to be appreciated as such. The author has two audiences. One is the casual reader like myself, looking for insights in someone else's day to day life. The other is for the author themselves, trying to put words to all of the emotions in some part of their life.
"Bunny" has a complicated life, performing in music, on stage, nationally and internationally, but none of that is part of this memoir. The part of her life of concern is the escape to a small island with a classic maritime structure. Since it was written in the early 1940's, a small amount of international politics (minor references to WWII) unavoidably sneaks in but the thesis is that the island provides sanctuary from her career, hectic NY lifestyle, and the world at large. It is replaced with the bucolic community of WinterHarbor and the sea around Mark Island.
Once you grasp that, and abandon the search for a dramatic narrative arc, you begin to enjoy her alternate lifestyle vicariously. She makes small efforts avoid being too sanguine but that's not really her goal. She focuses on the positive.
It's a quick read though there are occasional editing challenges that leave the reader off the trail. You might find yourself wondering where we are and how we got there and who is that person she just referenced. Thus, the three star review.
I do want to go explore the Maine coast and see if I can find Winter Harbor some time as a result of this book.
"Bunny" has a complicated life, performing in music, on stage, nationally and internationally, but none of that is part of this memoir. The part of her life of concern is the escape to a small island with a classic maritime structure. Since it was written in the early 1940's, a small amount of international politics (minor references to WWII) unavoidably sneaks in but the thesis is that the island provides sanctuary from her career, hectic NY lifestyle, and the world at large. It is replaced with the bucolic community of WinterHarbor and the sea around Mark Island.
Once you grasp that, and abandon the search for a dramatic narrative arc, you begin to enjoy her alternate lifestyle vicariously. She makes small efforts avoid being too sanguine but that's not really her goal. She focuses on the positive.
It's a quick read though there are occasional editing challenges that leave the reader off the trail. You might find yourself wondering where we are and how we got there and who is that person she just referenced. Thus, the three star review.
I do want to go explore the Maine coast and see if I can find Winter Harbor some time as a result of this book.
July 13, 2021
Since I was raised in Maine, on the coast, and am in love with lighthouses, I am unable to be unbiased about this book. Slow paced memoir of life on a tiny lighthouse island, off the Maine coast. I loved it. Yes, very dated. That's fine, cuz that is how it was.
November 14, 2022
A great read for anyone who likes Lighthouses and daydreams about what it could be like to own one of your own.
November 29, 2016
Written in 1943. A wonderful account of buying a small island with a lighthouse on the Maine coast as a summer home.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews