Shore Chronicles: Diaries and Travelers Tales from the Jersey Shore
by Margaret Thomas Buchholz
Category: History

What was the Shore like before? For millions, summer means a trip to the Shore. Every generation brings a new perspective and a new sense of discovery. Every visitor returns home with tales of their experience along this beloved sandy coastline. Shore Chronicles enlightens contemporary Shore-lovers with fascinating historical perspective. This comprehensive collection begins with adventure travel in 1764 when the Shore was still a wild frontier. It concludes in 1955 with the opening of the Garden State Parkway, which brought with it exponentially more visitors and rapid development. A total of 50 accounts -- illustrated with 50 historic images -- include writing by such well-known figures as John J. Audubon, Walt Whitman, Robert Louis Stevenson, Stephen Crane and Arthur Conan Doyle. But just as interesting are selections from private journals, letters and diaries from unknowns vacationing or visiting the Shore. As fresh as their experiences are to visitors each year, the fundamental attractions of the seashore resonate throughout time. Yet it is stunning to read how different the landscape and environment was before development.