Gloucester Sea Ballads: True Tales of Gloucester Fishermen

Gloucester, Massachusetts was founded nearly 400 years ago, being one of the very first of the English settlements on the Eastern seaboard of the United States. Although initially it was a essentially a land based community, by the mid 18th century it had become one of the most important fishing communities in N. America, with a commanding position on George’s Bank and the immensely rich fishing grounds of Newfoundland.

However with this huge growth in maritime activities came an astonishingly high rate of fatalities amongst Gloucester-men working the boats in the fishing industry, and it is the history of the exploits of those that risked their lives in the pursuit of cod that inspired the author Kitty Parsons to pen the ballads in this volume. The ballads have an incredible vitality and involve story telling in a most immediate form. They also have a very definite sense of humor.

The poems were first published in 1946 and then reissued in the current format in 1981. They have, however, been long out of print, and Galileo is very happy to bring them back with a new cover featuring a well known Winslow Homer Gloucester image - Homer himself being one of the town’s most famous painters.

This volume manages to distill the essence of a seafaring town that has acquired iconic status in the United States through its adoption by so many famous artists and writers over the last two centuries. Sadly, little is known of Kitty Parsons who was a Rockport resident, married to the sculptor Richard Recchia. But this book is the greatest monument to her talents