1 of 2
Hidden Gems
Hidden Gems and Towering Tales: A Hancock, Michigan, Anthology.
2 of 2
The Lighthouse Road
The Lighthouse Road by Peter Geye.
Hidden Gems and Towering Tales
A Hancock, Michigan, Anthology edited by Laura Mahon & John S. Haeussler
City of Hancock, Michigan
ISBN: 978-0-578-11754-6
$15 Softcover
It’s an official sesquicentennial publication, but this book is not a dry history of Hancock. This highly readable, fascinating collection profiles remarkable people with local ties. Some left their imprint on Hancock; others left their mark on the world.
Maude Sincock Roberts was 20 in 1912 when she traveled from England on the Titanic to join her father and sister in Hancock. From a lifeboat, she watched the ship lights “disappearing as the bow sank down, water pouring into the open portholes.” Maude made it to Hancock, married and had three children. She shared her Titanic rescue story at theaters in Hancock, Ishpeming and Marquette.
We also meet Verna Hillie, 1930s movie star in “Duck Soup” with the Marx Brothers and westerns with John Wayne; innovative ceramicist Mary Chase Perry Stratton, whose work is in museums around the world; and photo pioneer Edward Steichen, who grew up in Hancock when it was a rough 1880s mining boom town.
Hidden Gems is well named, filled with wonderful photos such as the statuelike Lieutenant Commander Edward Steichen in 1943 on the USS Lexington. (He’s also on the cover in a 1959 portrait by Philippe Halsman.)
The book, researched, written and edited by the Sesquicentennial Committee and local contributors, is a project of which the whole community can be proud and sets the bar high for such books. It’s available from Keweenaw Peninsula bookstores or the city offices. – Bob Berg
The Lighthouse Road
by Peter Geye
Unbridled Books
ISBN: 978-1-60953-084-6
$24.95 Hardcover
Peter Geye’s compelling story is set along Lake Superior in a town named Gunflint, a place where rugged landscape challenges immigrants and where opportunity is too limited for the growing population.
The central figure, Odd Einar Eide, is an orphan raised by Hosea – chemist, doctor, dentist, storekeeper and liquor smuggler. Hosea cares for the orphan, but we are kept in the dark until the end about his relationship with Einar’s mother.
When Hosea travels to Chicago to bring home an orphan, 14 years older than Einar, the tale takes an odd turn. Rebekah, fetched from a whorehouse where she checked hats, poses as Hosea’s daughter while also posing for porno postcards. Hosea employs Einar to run his illegal liquor trade and to catch fish.
We learn slowly about Einar’s mother, a Norwegian who had arrived only to find the aunt with whom she was to stay has hanged herself and that her uncle is mad.
Among these quiet people, frustrations brew, deceptions are hidden, and Rebekah and Einar find solace together despite difficulties. The romance must make it through this dark filter. You must discover if it succeeds or fails. For me, the book rings out as a good portrait of a time, place and people. – Mike Link
Books reviewed, unless otherwise indicated, should be available through local booksellers by using the ISBN number.