The Provincetown Book

How did a sleepy New England fishing village become a gay mecca? In this dynamic history, the author explains why Provincetown, Massachusetts, --alternately known as "Land's End," "Cape-tip," "Cape-end," and, to some, "Queersville, U.S.A."--has meant many things to many people. 36 photos.

Rich with anecdotes about famous and infamous residents (Norman Mailer, Tennessee Williams, Marlon Brando), "Ptown" is a lively, penetrating, and occasionally shocking look at Provincetown, Massachusetts, by writer Manso, who has lived there for much of his life. 16-page photo insert.

A delightful collection of classic recipes, folk history, and original drawings by Cape Cod's most-admired chef. With a new Introduction by Anthony Bourdain "It's a true classic, one of the most influential of my life." --Anthony Bourdain, from the new introduction "Provincetown ... is the seafood capital of the universe, the fishiest town in the world. Cities like Gloucester, Boston, New Bedford, and San Diego may have bigger fleets, but they just feed the canneries. Provincetown supplies fresh fish for the tables of gourmets everywhere." --Howard Mitcham Provincetown's best-known and most-admired chef combines delectable recipes and delightful folklore to serve up a classic in seafood cookbooks. Read about the famous (and infamous!) Provincetown fishing fleet, the adventures of the fish and shellfish that roam Cape Cod waters, and the people of Provincetown--like John J. Glaspie, Lord Protector of the Quahaugs. Then treat yourself to Cape Cod Gumbo, Provincetown Paella, Portuguese Clam Chowder, Lobster Fra Diavolo, Zarzuela, and dozens of other Portuguese, Creole, and Cape Cod favorites. A list of fresh and frozen seafood substitutes for use anywhere in the country is a unique feature of this lively book. You'll learn the right way to eat broiled crab and the safe way to open oysters. You'll even learn how to cook a sea serpent!

"Cunningham's short book is a haunting, beautiful piece of work. . . . A magnificent work of art." -The Washington Post "Easily read on a plane-and-ferry journey from here to the sandy, tide-washed tip of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, Land's End is that most perfect of companions: slender, eloquent, enriching, and fun. . . . A casually lovely ode to Provincetown." -The Minneapolis Star Tribune "Cunningham rambles through Provincetown, gracefully exploring the unusual geography, contrasting seasons, long history, and rich stew of gay and straight, Yankee and Portuguese, old-timer and 'washashore' that flavors Cape Cod's outermost town. . . . Chock-full of luminous descriptions . . . . He's hip to its studied theatricality, ever-encroaching gentrification and physical fragility, and he can joke about its foibles and mourn its losses with equal aplomb." -Chicago Tribune "A homage to the 'city of sand'. . . Filled with finely crafted sentences and poetic images that capture with equal clarity the mundanities of the A&P and Provincetown's magical shadows and light . . . Highly evocative and honest. It takes you there." -The Boston Globe

Mary Heaton Vorse was, to many, the spirit of American radicalism incarnate. This pioneer of labor journalism in the United States covered the Lawrence textile strike, the great steel strike of 1919, and the 1937 auto workers' strike and factory takeover in Flint, Michigan. Vorse was prominent in the women's suffrage movement, libertarian socialism, feminism and world peace. As a war correspondent, she traveled to Lenin's Moscow and Hitler's Germany. On the day she died, Vorse was planning her involvement in the movement against the Vietnam War.

During the Revolutionary War, eight-year-old Anne Nelson, living in Provincetown on Cape Cod, helps the patriots' cause by carrying an important message from Boston to Newburyport.

A safe haven for the queer community and a getaway for artists, the beach town of Provincetown, Massachusetts is a place defined by openness and tolerance. Throughout the late 1970s and early '80s, Joel Meyerowitz spent his summers there, roaming the seaside with an 8-by-10 camera, making exquisite, sharply observed portraits of Provincetown's progressive community. Provincetown collects one hundred portraits, most never before published, bringing viewers into an idyllic world of self-styled individualism.

A stunning portrait of community, identity, and sexuality by the critically acclaimed author of The Narrow Door When Paul Lisicky arrived in Provincetown in the early 1990s, he was leaving behind a history of family trauma to live in a place outside of time, known for its values of inclusion, acceptance, and art. In this idyllic haven, Lisicky searches for love and connection and comes into his own as he finds a sense of belonging. At the same time, the center of this community is consumed by the AIDS crisis, and the very structure of town life is being rewired out of necessity: What might this utopia look like during a time of dystopia? Later dramatizes a spectacular yet ravaged place and a unique era when more fully becoming one’s self collided with the realization that ongoingness couldn’t be taken for granted, and staying alive from moment to moment exacted absolute attention. Following the success of his acclaimed memoir, The Narrow Door, Lisicky fearlessly explores the body, queerness, love, illness, community, and belonging in this masterful, ingenious new book.

"In these irreverent pages, a shapeshifter gets a crash course in gender and sexuality by inhabiting both sides of the binary and arriving precisely somewhere in the middle." —O, The Oprah Magazine “HOT” (Maggie Nelson) • “TIGHT” (Eileen Myles) • “DEEP” (Michelle Tea) It's 1993 and Paul Polydoris tends bar at the only gay club in a university town thrumming with politics and partying. He studies queer theory, has a dyke best friend, makes zines, and is a flaneur with a rich dating life. But Paul's also got a secret: he's a shapeshifter. Oscillating wildly from Riot Grrrl to leather cub, Paul transforms his body and his gender at will as he crossed the country––a journey and adventure through the deep queer archives of struggle and pleasure. Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl is a riotous, razor-sharp bildungsroman whose hero/ine wends his/her way through a world gutted by loss, pulsing with music, and opening into an array of intimacy and connections.

Seraphine is an ordinary Portuguese fisherman who finds himself a part of many extraordinary events. He and his family live in The Town at the End of the World where they experience the modest life of a seafaring family. But the idyllic simplicity of Depression-era Provincetown is shaken by the Second World War and the transition of the quiet fishing village to a bustling resort town. As Seraphine struggles with his sense of belonging in an ever-changing town, he experiences inexplicable events and fulfills heroic feats that prove nothing less than the strength of the human spirit. Seraphine is a novel that explores and condenses Provincetown history and lore into the framework of one family and their evolving life in the early part of the 20th century. It is full of playful humor, biblical allusion, local color, and immigrant sagas. Best yet, it is illustrated by the author with twenty-five black and white charcoal drawings that further capture the nostalgia of the tale.