ALEXANDER KEY AND HIS NOVEL ISLAND LIGHT
Sometimes a book finds you (or us, in this case). Michelle always researches where we go to find local authors and simply because of that we found ‘The Forgotten Coast’, on the Gulf of Mexico on the Florida Panhandle. The book was ‘lying around’ in a hotel lobby. We picked it up and I read it. Not stolen just borrowed!
Island Light by Alexander Key (1904-1979) was first published in 1950 and has been re-published by Forgotten Coast Used And Out of Print Books - www.forgottencoastbooks.com, and also there is a reference to Susan Nosco Wolfe - swolfe@forgottencoastbooks.com.
What a great idea this is to re-produce books such as this one. I wonder how many other books are lying around that should be given a re-print. Island Light is one book that deserves to be read by this decade’s readers.
It is a story set in and around Apalachicola, St George Island and St Vincent just after the American Civil War had ended and deals explicitly with life after this divisive conflict. I liked it, particularly, as it deals with life at a base level and not with the aristocratic south as portrayed by many. The sea was a way of life and Alexander Key writes with knowledge of it and gives to the reader reality. Okay, there are women involved, troubled people both Black and White and what can happen when the abolition of slavery makes them ‘free men’. That freedom creates problems without the safeguards of any control. It was engrossing, for me, but I like history anyway.
It is told through the voice of a sea captain who loses through being on the wrong side. But never mind about the story, as good as it is, because it is so well written and often poetic. Sitting in judgement, I can applaud the writing, and also the morality expressed at the end. I need to research some more the writings of Alexander Key and any other re-published books by the website listed.
This was a terrific read and a marvelous read far removed from today’s authors.
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