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The Last Days of Dogtown is set in the early 1800s in rural
Massachusetts. In it, I set out to imagine the lives of people who have been
left out of history: the poor, widows and spinsters, orphans, New England
Africans - both enslaved and free. Marginal and voiceless, these folks fascinate
me because so little is known about them. As in The Red Tent, their silence
gives me permission to imagine an entire world of longing and loss, of laughter
and hope.
This is a character-driven book, populated by people who might be called "eccentric" or even "erratic," which is a geologic term applied to the large boulders strewn by the last ice age over the rocky outcrop of Cape Ann. My second novel, Good Harbor was also set on this peninsula north of Boston, but here the attention is
focused not on the stunning coastline, but on the upcountry, inland landscape
that saw the original settlement of this northernmost reach of the Massachusetts
Bay.
The book was inspired by a pamphlet I found in a Gloucester bookstore many years
ago. The chapters that barely outlined the presence of "Judy Rhines," "Black
Ruth," and "Easter Carter" suggested a story that begged to be told.
The Last Days of Dogtown is the result.
My research for this book included reading up on 19th century dentistry,
studying drawings of ladies' underwear and shoes of the period, searching out
maps of the era, and tramping the terrain, where almost nothing is left of the
houses and fields of those early residents. The most vivid evidence of the
Commons Settlement, as Dogtown was originally known, are the remnants of stone
walls, which still line rarely traveled roads and set the boundaries around
long-abandoned fields and farms.
Judging a Book by its Cover
England
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Australia
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Hungary
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I love the cover on the paperback edition of the Last Days of Dogtown, which is a perfect illustration for a particular scene in the book. Judy Rhines (the character who I see as the “heart” of the book) picks up a hand mirror and studies the way that time has transformed her face.
Cover art varies on foreign editions in very interesting ways. Publishers choose art and designs they feel will appeal to their readers. I’m not always sure what the images are meant to convey, but I do love the variety.
 Read more about The Last Days of Dogtown
Reading Group Guide
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