Hubert's Freaks and Howard's Boats from Gloucester's Writers

I've been catching up on reading lately which is a good thing. I wasn't able to focus long enough to read there for awhile so I am glad to be back at it. Two of the books that I recently finished, both by distinguished Gloucester writers, are well worth the time spent on them and more.

Gregory Gibson is an antiquarian book dealer in Lanesville. I met him when he spoke at one of our Hovey House meetings a few years ago and he is the kind of guy you love to talk to because he knows a lot of stuff about the strangest things and you never know where the conversation is going to go but that's what makes it fun. His latest book, Hubert's Freaks, is a prime example. Some years back Greg met a fellow book dealer named Bob Langmuir who had a strange tale to tell himself and it started Greg off on an adventure than many of us would envy --- a veritable walk on the dark side of American culture and of the contemporary mind.

Carl Jung wrote about the shadow side, that hidden side of ourselves that we don't always want to acknowledge but that informs much of what we do. As a graphic artist one thing I know is that when you want to make something really stand out and get attention, putting a shadow behind it does a great job. People are like that, too. We might not like or even acknowledge those dark nether regions of our minds but they sometimes add a depth and drama to life that is fairly irresistible. Throughout our history Americans have had a lurid fascination with those dark places and no one was better at capturing that than photographer Diane Arbus. So when Bob Langmuir discovered a trove of Arbus photographs in a lot of sideshow memorabilia that he purchased he was off on a strange and complex adventure.

In Times Square there was once a place called Hubert's Museum, a sort of sideshow which included sword-swallowers, “savages”, human oddities and more. Diane Arbus photographed many of Hubert's “Freaks” and the story of Langmuir's discovery of those photos, the process of authenticating them, and then trying to discover what to do with them, all while doing battle with his own shadow side and all its demon, makes for fascinating reading. The web site for Hubert's Freaks contains many of the photos as well as audio files of the grind tape that was played. Visit the web site, buy the book, take a walk on the dark side --- you'll love it.

Joseph Garland is a true son of Gloucester and known locally for his books on area history. Joe is the one who told me that I needed to write The Old Mermaid's Tale because, as he put it, “not enough people are writing about the Great Lakes those stories need to be told.” So I did.

Down on Main Street there is a tavern that I have spent many an evening in. It is called Halibut Point and was one of Mark's most regular haunts. It was a rare night he didn't stop in there for a drink on his way home. On the walls of Halibut Point there are photos of its founder, Howard Blackburn. Though I had seen those photos a hundred times, I never knew his story until I read Joe Garland's Lone Voyager. What an adventure! Blackburn, a 6'2” Newfoundlander, was fishing out of Gloucester in the Canadian Maritimes in 1883 when he and a dory mate were carried off in a winter storm. By the time he returned to Gloucester he was the lone survivor of the trip and had lost all his fingers and most of his toes. But that didn't slow him down a bit. He started a tavern, now called Halibut Point, which still sports the oak bar and brass rails Blackburn had installed, and made his fortune. Then he went back to sea.

The sheer, unmitigated nerve of the man just boggles the mind. Twice he crossed the Atlantic Ocean alone and had a rip-roaring time. He then sailed down the east coast of the Americas, through the Straits of Magellan (a wonderful chapter for us armchair adventurers) and up the west coast intent on cashing in on the Klondike Gold Rush.

In my favorite chapter he sails, once again alone, up the Hudson River, through the Erie Canal, across the Great Lakes, and down the Mississippi --- a journey I can do nothing but envy. I've never thought about sailing across the Atlantic but that is a trip I would love to take. And, in my favorite part of my favorite chapter, Blackburn makes my favorite statement: That of all the bodies of water he ever did maritime battle with, the most brutal was Lake Erie. He said it was tougher than crossing the Grand Banks of the Atlantic to the Azores. Since that is much of the story in The Old Mermaid's Tale it pleased me no end.

Joe Garland is quite a seaman himself and writes with passion about Blackburn's challenges at sea. The book has been around for over 40 years. I am very pleased to finally have read it!

So, as Fiesta starts cranking up today, I have new appreciation of my beloved Gloucester. An appreciation that is much enhanced by two such admirable writers as Greg Gibson and Joe Garland and all they have contributed to the literary world.

Thanks for reading.