Mark Mills - Amagansett

‘I heard you was thinking of going to college.’

‘Figured I’d stick around instead,’ said Conrad.

Ned peered past them, reading the waves.

‘Fishing don’t teach you much,’ he said, ‘but it do teach you you don’t need much.’

A large wave broke under the dory.

‘Go, boys, go!’ yelled Ned, pushing off and dragging himself over the gunwale.

The oars bit, the dory sprang forward, rising steeply, its high, sharp bow splitting the face of the capping sea, carving a passage through.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book would never have been written were it not for two people: Stephanie Cabot, my agent and my friend, who urged me to take the idea further; and my wife, Caroline, who supported and encouraged me while I did so. Special thanks are also due to Nick Shevloff and Christina von Schilling, who first introduced me to the South Fork of Long Island and who have provided me with a home-away-from-home there ever since.

I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to my editors, Julia Wisdom and Jennifer Hershey, for their unstinting enthusiasm and their expert guidance.

Among the many books I found useful in the writing of this work I would like to make particular mention of Peter Matthiessen’s Men’s Lives, John N. Cole’s Striper, Everett T. Rattray’s The South Fork, and The Pond in the Pasture by Capt. Edwin Sherrill, Jr. Other invaluable sources were the excellent online archives of the East Hampton Star, as well as The History Project Inc.—an extensive collection of taped interviews with local people, many of whom have now passed on. My thanks to Tony Prohaska and Martha Kalser for providing this extraordinary oral resource, which is housed in the East Hampton Library.

A great sadness to me during the writing of this book was the death of John N. Cole—a guiding light in my research, who, together with his wife, Jean, welcomed me into their home in Brunswick, Maine. I hope that in some small way John’s spirit lives on in these pages.

Others who gave generously of their time and expertise are Stuart Bennet Vorpahl and his wife, Mary; Peter Matthiessen; Carleton Kelsey; Capt. Harvey L. Bennett; Capt. Edwin Sherrill, Jr; and local librarians, Diana Dayton and Dorothy King, who patiently steered me through the wealth of material contained in the Pennypacker Long Island Collection. I am also extremely grateful to Katie Allen and Paul Sisson for their hospitality; Nicola Levy; Simon Prosser; Philip Gwyn Jones; Tom Weldon; and Anne O’Brien.

Finally, my thanks go to Ileen Maisel, who gave me my first ever break as a writer.

Copyright

Fourth Estate A Division of HarperCollins Publishers 77-85 Fulham Palace Road, London W6 8JB

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Copyright © Mark Mills 2004

Mark Mills asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

EPub Edition © AUGUST 2009 ISBN: 978-0-007-34627-1

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